TOW #11 (written text)- "Keeping Shareholders in the Dark" by NY Times Editorial Board

Across the United States, millions of people invest and buy shares in public companies on Wall Street. Over the past few years, much debate has risen throughout the financial world on public companies ability keep spending reports private, disclosing them to their major shareholders. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been reviewing this demanding topic since 2010. In a surprising action to many investors, SEC chairwomen Mary Jo White dismissed this topic regarding the spending of public companies from the SEC agenda last week. This dismissal has caused great concern among investors, as many people fear that the stock market may slow if people do not have faith in the companies they invest in. Investors spend thousands and sometimes even millions of dollars buying shares in companies, so they want to know where their money goes. In this editorial, the NY Times main purpose is to urge Mrs. White to put the disclosure of corporate spending back on the SEC's agenda, in hopes that investors will finally be able to obtain this valuable information. The primary audience of the editorial is the SEC, specifically Mrs. White, but the extended audience includes investors across the country. In order to support the purpose, the editorial board includes statistics in their writing to convince the SEC and other readers that losing the faith of investors, could drastically impact the stock market. According to a petition delivered to the SEC in 2011, “ a letter of support from some Democrats in Congress and one from institutional investors who together manage nearly $700 billion.” This statistic appeals to both logos and pathos in fact that $700 billion dollars is certainly a lot of money. This rhetorical element does an effective job of supporting the purpose because the SEC will soon realize that if public companies begin to lose hundreds of billions of dollars from investors, the market will plummet. Therefore, such statistics provide the SEC and Mrs. White with an ultimatum: either place the disclosure of public companies’ spending back on the SEC agenda or else the economy will face severe repercussions. Overall, the writers that contributed to this editorial do a very good job of accomplishing their purpose, and, in my opinion, this could very well have an impact on investors and the SEC in the near future.