From: David Bartholomew [mailto:davidbartholomew@yahoo.com] Sent: Sunday, November 23, 2003 4:49 PM To: chairmanoffice@sec.gov Subject: Business Regulations Dear Sir, Below, at the bottom, is a comment I made a while back to a proposed change in SEC disclosure rules. It has some cynicism it about the intentions of the people running our companies, and this can be extended to those also running our financial institutions. There is more I could say, but esentially, while many or most of the people heading our country's companies are decent individuals, my experience with them indicates that plenty of them consider cheating the governemnt and, more importantly and tragically, the people who comprise the public a hearty fun game with only two rules to be played to the maximum. Those two rules are to grab as much as possible for oneself, and to totally humble the losers. Sir, it is up to the SEC and Congress to take the game away from them, because only those two institutions have the powers to do so. The only way to do that is create a relatively simple set of rules to set the limits of conduct with no loopholes. If such a system had existed, there may have been no Enron or Global Crossing scandals, nor the current mutual fund scandals. And if our business leaders are clearly charged with resoponsibility to the people they employ, serve and do commerce with, as well as the public, then they will more likely behave well. Sincerely, David F. Bartholomew Author: david f bartholomew at Internet Date: 04/27/2000 3:58 PM Normal TO: RULE-COMMENTS at 03SEC Subject: Proposed Regulation FD: File No. S7-31-99 ------------------------------- Message Contents I am opposed to selective reporting by companies. They have already enough ways to obscure the relevant facts about managements actions and self rewards, as well as the health of the companies. It is completely wrong to allow companies to altogether withold information that may impact other people's descisions, financial resources, and even jobs. If anything, SEC regulations should demand even better disclosure with the bad news and questionable actions prominently reported. One thing that I have learned over the years is that companies (and management in particular) lie a lot! What's more, after working closely with many members of management. I learned that they pride themselves on making fools of other people and taking tremendous advantage of them. Please do not relax the reporting requirements of public companies. David Bartholomew 1236 Assumption Dr St. Louis, MO 63125 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Free Pop-Up Blocker - Get it now