Risky business

Right Angle Blog links to this Dayton Daily News story where one of the sponsors of the Iran divestment bill (HB 151), Rep. Shannon Jones, says:

Jones says it isn’t about making a political statement. Instead, the bill is designed to protect retirees’ money since investing in Iran and Sudan is risky.

“I can’t understand why the pension funds are resisting this,” Jones said. “It’s their responsibility to be assessing this risk. They are not.”

That just sounds stupid. Those fund managers are weighing the risks to a far greater extent than state representatives are. It’s almost insulting to suggest otherwise (insulting- not to the fund managers, but to you and me for expecting us to believe that).

If the bill sponsors are going to mess around like that, I’m less inclined to believe them on other things. The purpose of the bill is to marshal American financial resources in support of our foreign policy, so that they’re not working at cross-purposes. Also:

State Sen. Jeff Jacobson, R-Butler Twp., also introduced legislation in the Senate that would force the pension systems and other government agencies to divest from companies doing business in Sudan because of the genocide in the Darfur region.

Hmm. Are those floodgates that I hear opening?

UPDATE: Here’s a thing via Jill. The bill gets a floor vote on Tuesday, June 5.