El Lazaro wrote:This proposal is either literally communism, peak neoliberalism, or both. Against, or maybe for?
The proposal doesn't really do anything, which I suppose is a blessing and a curse.
The resolution begins from an assumption that member nations already have a complex financial services sector serviced by financial professionals that is the hallmark of modern capitalist systems. So to that extent it's implicitly pro-capitalism. Of course, member nations that do not want to adopt this particular policy regarding "sophisticated" investors could presumably just outlaw speculative investing entirely. Or set standards for being sophisticated that could not be met. A "personal wealth" requirement that the investor own a parcel of land on Alderaan - if they wanted to be silly and magical about it - would be a valid personal wealth requirement under this law. If you want to be more serious and boring about it, an yearly income standard of at least the net value of all assets traded by the investor (so that they could readily reimburse clients for unsound investments) is much more legitimate sounding but would be economically impossible to meet.
On the flip side, member nations that do not want to have any restrictions on investors can just make it extremely easy to be defined as a sophisticated investor. Their standards could be personal wealth of 1 cent and at least one month experience breathing the sweet sweet air of a nation that fully embraces a free market economy - standards even a baby could meet. Or just cut out the middleman and impose no requirements, since the resolution doesn't actually call on the competent authority to adopt any.
I guess those who want the WA to meddle in the internal financial sectors of member nations in extremely vague and toothless ways will have a lot of fun with this. The way I see it, it's just another embrace by the WA of the implicit concepts of modern capitalism, with a veneer of consumer protection trying desperately to mask a "do whatever you want" attitude.
I think an international credit rating agency would have been a better use of time for those interested in consumer financial protection. That, or the imposition of some actual standards.
