It Is Now Fella Official! ... We Are Nuts!

Nasdaq has now joined the... We Are Out of Our Gourds Club

Maybe I should modify the above sentence by changing it to... We at Nasdaq Are Proud to Announce the Creation of the We Are Out of Our Gourd Club

This Blog Posting could become very complicated. I will try to peck it out so that even I can understand it.

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Excerpt #1 about Nasdaq’s Plans to Advance Diversity Through New Proposed Listing Requirements...  

NEW YORK, Dec. 01, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nasdaq (Nasdaq: NDAQ) today filed a proposal with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to adopt new listing rules related to board diversity and disclosure. If approved by the SEC, the new listing rules would require all companies listed on Nasdaq’s U.S. exchange to publicly disclose consistent, transparent diversity statistics regarding their board of directors. Additionally, the rules would require most Nasdaq-listed companies to have, or explain why they do not have, at least two diverse directors, including one who self-identifies as female and one who self-identifies as either an underrepresented minority1 or LGBTQ+. Foreign companies and smaller reporting companies would have additional flexibility in satisfying this requirement with two female directors.

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Did you see the little “1” hooked onto “underrepresented minority”? This is the Nasdaq Manager of Confusion’s attempt to clarify things for us. (I told you this was going to be confusing)...

1 - An “underrepresented minority” is an individual who self-identifies in one or more of the following groups: Black or African American, Hispanic or Latinx, Asian, Native American or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander or Two or More Races or Ethnicities.

I hope this has helped.

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Did “Latinx” throw you for a loop? Fella is again glad to help...

Latinx is a gender-neutral neologism, sometimes used to refer to people of Latin American cultural or ethnic identity in the United States.

Glad I could help, again.

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I will not bother to explain the full Nasdaq Quoted Paragraph above because I don’t understand what the heck Nasdaq is talking about but I am sure you understand it fully...Or am I or Do You?

If you want to read more than I want to read about all of this, here is the link that will allow you to do that... https://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/nasdaq-to-advance-diversity-through-new-proposed-listing-requirements-2020-12-01

Good Luck.

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Excerpt #2 comes from the Wall Street Journal and reports what Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett thinks about Nasdaq’s venture into Confusion and Absurdity...

Nasdaq vs. Warren Buffett

The more we think about the new racial, gender and LGBTQ mandates for corporate directors that Nasdaq announced on Tuesday, the more absurd they seem.

How is a company supposed to find out if a board candidate is gay if that isn’t already known? Is it supposed to hire private detectives to look into it? Once that person joins the board, does the company then have to broadcast his or her sexual orientation in the annual report so progressives can be satisfied that the quota is met? We could go on.

For a dose of sanity, we thought readers might enjoy Warren Buffett’s views on what he looks for in a director. The following is from the legendary investor’s 2006 letter to shareholders in Berkshire Hathaway’s annual report:

“In selecting a new director, we were guided by our long-standing criteria, which are that board members be owner-oriented, business-savvy, interested and truly independent. . . .

“Charlie [Munger, Berkshire vice chairman] and I believe our four criteria are essential if directors are to do their job—which, by law, is to faithfully represent owners. Yet these criteria are usually ignored. Instead, consultants and CEOs seeking board candidates will often say, ‘We’re looking for a woman,’ or ‘a Hispanic,’ or ‘someone from abroad,’ or what have you. It sometimes sounds as if the mission is to stock Noah’s ark. Over the years I’ve been queried many times about potential directors and have yet to hear anyone ask, ‘Does he think like an intelligent owner?’ “The questions I instead get would sound ridiculous to someone seeking candidates for, say, a football team, or an arbitration panel or a military command. In those cases, the selectors would look for people who had the specific talents and attitudes that were required for a specialized job. At Berkshire, we are in the specialized activity of running a business well, and therefore we seek business judgment.”

Nasdaq is nuts.

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Now We Can Wrap Up All Of This With... Fella’s 2 Cents

Fella Cents #1...Is not Nasdaq an Indicator of How Things Are Going In The Stock Market kinda thingie? If it starts kicking companies out because of Various Social Justice Requirements for Membership (currently 3,300 companies) does it not dilute and destroy their ability to be an Indicator of much of anything?

They may end up changing their motto to...

We Don’t Have Enough Members For You To Pay Any Attention To Us But, If You Have Nothing Better To Do, Would You Please Look At Our Trading Day Ending Averages As If They Were Still Important Like They Used To Be Important?

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Fella Cents #2...Is it a Federal Law that All LGBTQ+’ers must declare their Sexual Idenitity? What if some of them, for whatever their reasons are, do not care to declare their Sexual Identity or just do not want to get mixed up in all of this...

Ø Are the LGBTQ+ Police going to arrest them for not wanting to be a part of all of this?

Ø Are the LGBTQ+ Revenuers going to fine them for not wanting to be a part of all of this?

I shudder to think of where this is taking us!...

Are we going to see a plethora of imitation LGBTQ+’ers claiming to be actual LGPTQ+’ers just so they can get on Nasdaq Boards?

Would I kid u?

Smartfella