Houdini could teach the SEC a thing or two. Yes, the great magician is dead; but, then again, so is the SEC’s draft proposal on proxy access. Or, at least it soon will be, given its convoluted triggers, heavy lobbying against it by the business roundtable, a threatened lawsuit should the SEC go ahead, and—most importantly—the unwillingness of investors with capital at risk to wait for it.
While alive, however, both Houdini and the proposal were masters of misdirection: the art of making the audience look in one direction while the action happened elsewhere.
