The internet is a wonderful thing; this week, it has brought us two powerful new tools related to business law.

First, the Center for Political Accountability has aggregated the political spending disclosures of public companies in a handy, searchable website.  Granted, it’s a limited tool: it only includes companies in the S&P 500 (or that were in the S&P 500 as of 2015) – and unfortunately the descriptions on the site are less than clear on this point.  To that extent, then, it is useful as a sample of corporate behavior, but not as useful for specific shareholder or consumer action.  In that vein, I view it as something of a pilot project, demonstrating the theoretical power of the internet to harness these kinds of disclosures.  There are already apps that make it easier for consumers to express their political preferences – Boycott Trump and Buycott.com, for example.  This new site is another weapon – or potentially one –  in the arsenal. 

Marcia has expressed doubt that these kinds of campaigns work, and certainly there’s the countermobilization problem – a campaign on one side the political aisle may motivate those on the other side – but my own view is more in the behavioral vein: if you make it easier to do, it’s more likely people will do it. So, yes, there are a lot of reasons why consumers or shareholders might not vote via their dollars, but at each point where you make it easier for them to express political preferences with their spending/investing decisions, the number who do so will increase, and at some point you may see a consistent impact.

Second, we have the white collar crime heat map, which presents a zip-by-zip breakdown of areas where white collar crime proliferates.  I was horrified to discover the extent of my daily jeopardy in the years in which I worked in midtown Manhattan; I feel much safer now that I live in New Orleans.

More seriously, the site is not a new joke, but it remains a relevant one: namely, as a comment on what we as a society accept as racial/class/cultural markers of criminality, even as white collar crime remains – numerically speaking – a far greater problem than street crime.

For more analysis of this problem, I leave you with Jessica Williams of The Daily Show:

 

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Photo of Ann Lipton Ann Lipton

Ann M. Lipton is a Professor of Law and Laurence W. DeMuth Chair of Business Law at the University of Colorado Law School.  An experienced securities and corporate litigator who has handled class actions involving some of the world’s largest companies, she joined…

Ann M. Lipton is a Professor of Law and Laurence W. DeMuth Chair of Business Law at the University of Colorado Law School.  An experienced securities and corporate litigator who has handled class actions involving some of the world’s largest companies, she joined the Tulane Law faculty in 2015 after two years as a visiting assistant professor at Duke University School of Law.

As a scholar, Lipton explores corporate governance, the relationships between corporations and investors, and the role of corporations in society.  Read more.

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