CEOs need to treat cybersecurity as a strategic issue that should be handled at the highest level rather than shifting responsibility to their chief information security officer, according to an FT report. As hacking is an asymmetric menace, it is important for senior leaders to take a strategic standpoint that covers the entire supply network, assess reputational risk and identify the “crown jewels” of their businesses that require the highest level of protection, the report said. While CEOs need to maintain a strategic view of risks and opportunities that covers the entire supply network, they are better placed than CISOs to identify crow jewels, which could be guests passport details in a hotel, customer health data in a spa or intellectual property in a manufacturer. Companies that collaborate during crises fare better than those that suffer in silence, according to Pascal Steichen, who runs Luxembourg’s cybersecurity simulator.
The Biden administration's cumbersome bureaucracy, such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is making every American pay extra for energy and energy-related products. The administration argues that it is a reaction to the climate crisis. While carbon emissions are down due to natural replacement of coal by natural gas, Biden's administration has opted for executive overreach. The White House has expanded bureaucracy in several federal agencies, including the Office of Comptroller of the Currency, Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Support for EVs has been pushed through regulations and executive orders amid inflation and higher gasoline prices.
Grayscale, the world's largest cryptocurrency fund, has filed paperwork to launch a global bitcoin ETF, bypassing US regulators' restrictions by investing 40% of its assets in so-called "spot" bitcoin exchange-traded products listed outside the US. These products either hold physical bitcoin or track increased prices synthetically and are generally illegal in the US. US regulators have only allowed bitcoin ETFs trading in futures listed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. However, several US-listed ETFs already hold non-US-regulated securities, mostly in security bonds and equities. Analysts believe there's a chance of Grayscale getting approval for the ETF structure as the non-US ETPs it proposes investing in are regulated securities. Even if the ETF is approved, analysts believe there won't be much demand for the product as investors are wary of cryptocurrencies.
Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals set for corporate directors by certain groups are raising important concerns, argues Robert H. Sitkoff in an op-ed for the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance. Corporate governance is “remarkably vague”, and there is no proper democratic process behind these goals, says Sitkoff. While ESG initiatives may seem to appeal to certain investors, who are asking companies for more green disclosures, the costs of such initiatives means capital providers may never take new businesses public as they may not be able to check ESG boxes. This, in turn, limits investment options for average investors while professionals and high-net-worth investors continue to invest privately.
ESG risks damaging markets and the social order by incentivising exclusionary and economically inefficient behaviour. Moreover, if ESG-focused capital departs from disfavoured firms, arbitrageurs could unlock value in them. A possible outcome is therefore worse overall environmental outcomes and the departure of capital to nations without ESG burdens. In addition, ESG demeans the value of property rights within the corporation, as ESG raises the question of what is owed to its claimants and shareholders. Property is defined as a bundle of rights, from the right to exclude, to dispose of, to derive income from, meaning that when corporate assets are diverted- without express shareholder approval- to ends that do not increase corporate value, shareholders’ return on their investments are diluted without their consent, resulting in theft.
Sitkoff’s argument is that stakeholders arguing against ESG not realising their self-interest when participating in decision-making, harms shareholder return on investments in the ESG initiatives. Shareholders, according to Sitkoff, have the right to retain a full return on their investments as ESG risks damaging struggling firms and altering financial options of average investors while providing private benefits to those who have already invested.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed a change to the Renewable Fuel Standard that would push fuel supplies lower and make them more expensive. The EPA is allowing auto companies to generate “eRINs” they will sell to oil refiners, which means the standards could be dominated by electric vehicles, taking money from gasoline and diesel customers. Such a transformation could hit producers of transportation fuels, raise prices and endanger national security as the US would become more dependent on China, which dominates the EV supply chain. The EPA should scrap the proposal for the good of producers, consumers and national security, writes Dr. John Grizz Deal, CEO of IX Power Clean Water, an advanced water treatment technology company.
Canada's whistleblowing legislation has never protected a whistleblower in the 16 years since it was brought in, according to David Hutton, a senior fellow at the Centre for Free Expression. The Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act, which has cost taxpayers over $100m in that time, has deterred people who want to report wrongdoing and effectively covers it up. More than 1,500 public servants have come forward with information about wrongdoing since 2007, yet only two managed to prove that they were targeted with reprisals. Critics have said that the law is insufficient and Bill C-290 needs to be passed.
Canadian climate tech start-up Carbonhound has raised $1.3m in funding and created software to help small- and medium-sized businesses track their emissions and reduce their carbon footprints. The technology enables firms to view emissions levels in real time and streamline their efforts to meet the carbon-focused regulations and targets coming into force in markets around the world, said co-founder Sanders Lazier. "If you’re not a sustainable business, then you’re grabbing a smaller and smaller portion of market share every year”, he added.
