Reuters reports that Walmart has promised to "start disclosing directly to investors what it spends on lobbying on a state-by-state basis, responding to shareholder pressure to improve transparency on how the retailing giant seeks to influence public policy." The decision, according to the story, actually makes Walmart "the first constituent of the Dow Jones Industrial Average to break out state expenditures at that level of detail, drawing attention to spending that in some states reaches hundreds of thousands of dollars."
- KC's View:
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Good. I'm a total believer in complete financial transparency when it comes to lobbying expenses and political contributions ... every expense over $100 ought to be immediately disclosed online by whoever is getting the money and whoever is spending it.
Since we now seem to be at the point where the courts increasingly are removing constraints on what people can spend, if we are going to have the best government money can buy, we at least ought to know who is doing the buying and what a politician costs these days.
