One of the key promises of the Trump campaign was to drain the swamp. This concept is based on a belief in part that the legal and regulatory system that exists in Washington DC is too often beholden to the rich and powerful at the expense of the average person. Given the complexity of the modern US economy and the needed regulation for that system, this promise to drain the swamp does have solid reasoning behind it. The question is whether or not it is actually happening.
A recent proposed rule from the US Department of Labor as documented in the Financial Times suggests that the promised draining remains only a promise. In effect it will prohibit pension fund fiduciaries from voting on a shareholder proposal “unless the fiduciary prudently determines that the matter has an economic impact on the plan.” This rule appears to be supported and pushed by corporate lobbyists – swampier creatures probably do not exist. Corporations are clearly not interested in having their owners (e.g. the pension funds) vote their shares on issues which may make them more accountable as well as more focused on ESG principles.
Furthermore this proposed US Department of Labor rule is based on an assumption that it is easy to determine if a shareholder proposal has an economic consideration. I can only suspect that that determination will be in the eyes of the beholder – the corporation who will seek to avoid a shareholder view on issues its considers inconvenient. So it appears that draining the swamp has still quite some distance to go.
