Reviews of books and significant research papers.
Ownership: Reinventing companies, Capitalism, and Who Owns What by Corey Rosen and John Case should be read by every director on the board of public pension funds. I (James McRitchie) am planning to send a copy to all the board members of CalPERS once newly elected members take office next year. In celebration of […]
Saving American Democracy in the Age of Citizens United, that’s the subtitle of a new book by Robert A.G. Monks entitled The Emperor’s Nightmare. The subtitle speaks to the book’s forward thrust. The title puts that in the context of a long journey in corporate governance by Monks. The cover of Power and Accountability in 1991 […]
Six New Rules of Business: Creating Real Value in a Changing World (Berrett-Koehler, 2021) is Judy Samuelson’s latest book. Fresh off her testimony to Congress on shareholder primacy, discuss the issues with Judy on Corporate Accountability Forums, Monday 3/28/2022 at 2 pm Eastern – Register now to participate. (more…)
21st Century Investing: Redirecting Financial Strategies to Drive Systems Change is one book we hope investment fund trustees are reading and taking advice from. There are far too many green-washing funds trying to appeal to our green wishes. Money is flowing into ESG funds faster than ever. Many of us recognize that investing and shareholder advocacy […]
2022 The 100 Most Overpaid CEOs (release). As You Sow and HIP Investor have done it again. Read it and weep. Then take action. Vote against these pay packages AND the compensation committee members. Also, vote for proposals aimed at disclosure and more equitable distribution of incentive shares. I filed several such proposals listed in […]
Worker Voice and the New Corporate Boardroom is a new paper from the Aspen Institute Business & Society, based on a series of roundtables Idea Lab on Worker Voice in Corporate Governance. Whether the focus is on wages, worker health & safety or diversity, equity & inclusion, the year 2020 opened up new conversations about […]
Corporate Governance Gaming: The Power of Retail Investors is delicious snacking, not just for Robinhood and Reddit GenZ’ers, but also for some Boomers who have tried to democratize corporate governance for decades. How many times have we rolled our eyes reading about GameStop and the frenzy of meme stocks? Crazy? Yes, but also exuding potential, explored […]
Accountable may be an exception. Not many books on capitalism and corporate governance have the potential to spread like a meme. O’Leary and Valdamanis have a rare talent for using memorable terms like the Two-Buffett Paradox, Fiduciary Absolutism, and Milgram-Nixon Syndrome. Buy it on Amazon and I might get a few cents for the referral. I […]
Moving Beyond Modern Portfolio Theory: Timeliness In the spirit of Kuhn, this book eviscerates modern portfolio theory, arguing for a more systemic approach centered around human values and intentionality. I had similar nascent thoughts in 1967 when I concluded economics, based on “rational” actor assumptions of homo economicus, was not grounded in science. Lukomnik and Hawley aptly […]
Exit vs Voice? (link) Which strategy is most effective in moving us in a positive direction? Although most investors, especially retail investors, appear focused on exit by moving to ESG funds, the authors conclude voice is the more effective tool. From the abstract: We study the relative effectiveness of exit (divestment and boycott) and voice […]
The Giant Shadow of Corporate Gadflies, by Yaron Nili and Kobi Kastiel, (download at SSRN) is one of the more objective reviews of the recent influence of “gadflies” on corporate governance in America. It might have been even better if the authors had discussed their work with the subjects of their study – the gadflies. (Disclosure: […]
Conservative TV and Corporate Social Responsibility. Again, public opinion is the driver. A 2017 Pew Research Center study found that 37% of Americans get their news from local television news. Only 28% get their news from cable TV, while 26% tune into network news. Sinclair Broadcasting expands by acquiring those trusted local TV stations and […]
BRT’s Stakeholder Capitalism Exposed Lucian Bebchuk and Roberto Tallarita recently published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, ‘Stakeholder’ Capitalism Seems Mostly for Show. “If CEOs really intended to amend their companies’ purpose, they’d at least consult their boards first.” In an email with a link to the op-ed and the study upon which it is based, Bebchuk […]
Shareholder-Driven Stakeholderism (U of Chicago) by Cathy Hwang and Yaron Nili argues the Business Roundtable Statement of the Purpose of a Corporation should be seen as another way to entrench management, instead of disarming greedy profit-driven shareholders. Analysis of data, drawn from companies in the S&P 1500, found shareholders, not management, “have been the driving force behind […]
Redesigning Corporations: Incentives Matter (link) by Nicholas Benes is undoubtedly one of the most important corporate governance articles of 2020. Benes goes straight to the heart of irresponsible capitalism by addressing the unintended consequences of limited liability. A small tax on each trade of each company, refundable in 5 years if the company doesn’t declare bankruptcy, […]
Rebecca Henderson, Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire points to the real need for reform and offers several suggested improvements, primarily the need to focus on purpose. (link to Amazon) I review her book below and offer my own four cents of advice. Today (6/24/2020) Rethinking Capitalism: A fireside conversation with Rebecca Henderson and Ioannis Ioannou […]
The following extensive comments were submitted by William Lazonick, president of the Academic-Industry Research Network and UMass professor of economics emeritus, in response to my review of Predatory Value Extraction. This is dialogue a reviewer can only dream of, especially after already recieving a response from co-auther Jang-Sup Shin. More such exchanges with Shin, Lazonick, and others interested in […]
The Rhetoric and Reality of Shareholder Democracy was submitted by Jang-Sup Shin for publication in response to my post Predatory Value Extraction, a review of the book of that title by Professors Shin and Lazonick. Comments on The Rhetoric and Reality of Shareholder Democracy are invited in the box below. (more…)
Predatory Value Extraction: How the Looting of the Business Corporation Became the US Norm and How Sustainable Prosperity Can Be Restored (Kindle/Hardcover), by William Lazonick and Jang-Sup Shin, chronicles how agency theory and ‘maximizing shareholder value’ (MSV) led to looting of publicly traded companies. As many of us sit home waiting out the COVID-19 pandemic, […]
More beta is what investors should focus on order to increase long-term returns, argue Jim Hawley and Jon Lukomnik in their paper, The Long and Short of It: Are We Asking the Right Questions? – Modern Portfolio Theory and Time Horizons (download). That has also been the objective of Corporate Governance (CorpGov.net) since 1995. I […]
The Making of a Democratic Economy: How to Build Prosperity for the Many, Not the Few by Marjorie Kelly, Ted Howard, Naomi Klein (Foreword). Buy the book. As Naomi Klein notes in the Forward, We need to know what we are for as well as what we’re against… It’s not enough to imagine that another world is […]
Phelps’ Mass Flourishing: How Grassroots Innovation Created Jobs, Challenge, and Change by Edmund S. Phelps. Important issues are discussed but the typology, especially the characterization and treatment of corporatism, is problematic. (more…)
Tepper begins his book (with Hearn) by recounting United Airlines forcibly removing paying passenger Dr. David Dao, a Vietnamese-American pulmonologist, from an overbooked plane. The video of him going unconscious and bloody went viral. United’s CEO initially blamed the passenger for resisting but later settled. Jonathan Tepper and Denise Hearn fail to mention Dr. Dao suffered a broken nose, loss […]
Charles Schwab chronicles the history of his namesake firm in Invested: Changing Forever the Way Americans Invest. I knew he led a technological revolution and was among the first to slash prices. From A Nation of Small Shareholders, I also knew Schwab was on a long-term mission to have every American share in our growing […]
The Age of Living Machines: How Biology Will Build the Next Technology Revolution by Susan Hockfield provides a quick read of what is on the horizon. The former president of MIT believes the convergence of biology and engineering will be as transformative as the previous convergence of physics and engineering. (more…)
We Three Kings: Disintermediating Voting at the Index Fund Giants (download at SSRN) by Caleb N. Griffin provides insight as to how investors could influence the Big Three index funds — BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street, as those funds exercise increasing power over the economy. Like me, Griffin is interested in extending democracy to corporate […]
American values were recognized as at risk in 1932 when Adolf Berle and Gardiner Means argued that with dispersed shareholders, ownership has been separated from their control. (The Modern Corporation and Private Property) Ironically, concentration of equities under the umbrella of three or four indexed funds presents an opportunity to end that divide and make companies […]
David Webber was interviewed by Doug Chia recently. I previously reviewed Webber’s book elsewhere, Working-Class Shareholder: Review Essay, which included links to several interviews. However, Doug Chia’s interview of David Weber is exceptionally good, worth viewing. Douglas (Doug) Chia is executive director of the Governance Center for The Conference Board. (more…)
Shareholder Collaboration is a new ECGI working paper by Jill Fisch and Simone M. Sepe. Fisch is one of my favorite researchers, being insightful and less predictable than many of those in the primary academic hubs of corporate governance (Harvard, Stanford, and Delaware). In Shareholder Collaboration, the authors discuss the growing importance of a collaborative […]
The Rise of the Working-Class Shareholder: Labor’s Last Best Weapon by David Webber is sure to get readers thinking (purchase). For far too long, labor and its progressive sympathizers have sought to transform the market from outside the market: from courts, from legislatures, from regulators, from street protests, from strikes. These tools are important. But […]
A Nation of Small Shareholders: Marketing Wall Street after World War II (Studies in Industry and Society) by Janice M. Traflet (link to buy) explains how an ad campaign began to transform American finance. With all the current focus on Main Street investors, A Nation of Small Shareholders could be revisited and transformed to include […]
Earning It: Introductory Notes Joann Lublin gave the opening keynote at the recent Corporate Directors Forum 2018 in San Diego. She spoke largely about her new book, Earning It: Hard-Won Lessons from Trailblazing Women at the Top of the Business World. This year the Forum had an overall theme, “How Culture Impacts the Boardroom and Beyond.” Corporate […]
Standing Voting Instructions: Empowering the Excluded Retail Investor by Jill E Fisch just could be the most important article on corporate governance this year… if it is widely read and acted on. Download at ecgi, Penn Law or SSRN. The above photo is from Small Investors Support the Boards. But Few of Them Vote, The New York […]
The Storm Before the Storm: The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic by Mike Duncan reviewed from something of a corporate governance perspective. The final victory over Carthage in the Punic Wars led to rising economic inequality, dislocation of traditional ways of life, increasing political polarization, the breakdown of unspoken rules of political conduct, the […]
The Ascendancy of Finance (link) by Joseph Vogl, explains the dramatic transfer of power to the financial sector that occurred over centuries but accelerated during the recent financial crisis. Traditionally, markets limited state power and were, in turn, restrained by the nation states. As Vogel notes, “In this theoretical myth, spaces of freedom are weighed against concerns […]