Outrage over SEC terrorism ‘blacklist’

I think that this is a good idea, but also think that the companies who are upset have a small point. In the first place, why are they dealing with terrorist nations? But if the SEC is working strictly off the annual reports, that does not teach us much. Still, this is a good way of letting people know just who they are investing with.

Outrage over SEC terrorism ‘blacklist’: "Some of the world’s biggest companies are outraged by a website link launched by US regulators aimed at exposing which of them could be “indirectly subsidising a terrorist state”.
By Jeremy Grant in Washington

The Securities and Exchange Commission this week linked to a list of five countries – Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria – designated by the State Department as “sponsors of terrorism”.

By clicking on each country, investors see a list of companies that mention that country in their latest annual reports. The companies are mostly non-US and include Unilever, Cadbury, HSBC, Nokia, Siemens and Total.

Christopher Cox, SEC chairman, described the site as falling under the commission’s investor-protection mission. “No investor should ever have to wonder whether his or her investments or retirement savings are indirectly subsidising a terrorist haven or genocidal state.”

But the companies are objecting because the list does not make clear the extent of a company’s business in such states or whether they still have ties."