“The eccentric” — love it!–“chief executive officer of Swatch Group, one of the world’s top watchmakers, was so incensed by recent allegations of mass U.S. spying that he chastised a top New York official over the matter in a letter late last year.”
[amazon asin=0988203227&template=*lrc ad (left)]Did he ever! Seems “New York state’s pension fund … has a history of shareholder activism”; this apparently goaded “New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, who administers the state’s $161 billion pension fund” to insist that the “eccentric” Nick “Hayek[, CEO of Swatch] and nine other Olympic sponsors … take a stance against Russia’s recent clampdown on gays ahead of the winter games in Sochi.”
Note that the reporter, who feels free to label Mr. Hayek “eccentric,” expresses not the slightest objection to so inappropriate, bullying, and unconstitutional a move from New York’s rulers. Doesn’t even question it, in fact. No, he[amazon asin=B005PSR5OG&template=*lrc ad (right)] and his editors cheer as a government in the US orders a business, in another country, no less, to press a third country into acting as utterly immoral New York decrees.
Well. Our hero was having none of it. He told Despot DiNapoli to mind his own business and then added: “As you claim you are an investor with Swatch Group you should be equally preoccupied about what has been publicized lately: the massive collection of data of the NSA worldwide including Switzerland…Swatch Group is an innovative industrial leader; at the heart of our success are very innovative products… The integrity of our confidential information is key to develop successful products. The practices that apparently have become a habit from organizations like the NSA can create huge damage to our company and our shareholders. As an investor you should [amazon asin=B000N3PH8O&template=*lrc ad (left)]have all interest to speak up loud about such potentially damaging practices coming from the USA…”
Amen!!!!!!!
The reporter opines, “Hayek’s comments may look out of place in a conversation about gay rights…” Wrong. They look moral and eminently sensible, you ninny.
We won’t even address the underlying issues here: why governments steal from us to fund pensions in the first place (what, the bureaucrats didn’t suck enough money from us after a lifetime with their snouts in the public trough?) and why they are then distorting the market with their investments.
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11:14 am on February 7, 2014
