Andrea Coombes of The Wall Street Journal MarketWatch blog talks estate tax with venture capitalist and tech company founder, Jerry Fiddler, in this video interview. Fiddler “consider[s] it a point of pride to be able to pay back into the public good…[not] a point of pain.” Noam Chomsky: A Critique of Madisonian Democracy – On […]
Tag Archives | democracy
DC Plans and Employee Input
The UK’s industry-led Investment Governance Group (IGG) recently published a best practice guidance for defined contribution (DC) pensions, which include six principles for DC schemes designed to encourage better investment governance and decision making by all stakeholders, including trustees, employers, advisers, providers, and members. As I glance at this guidance it makes me realize how […]
Giant Stirs: Fidelity Backs an Environmental Proxy Proposal
Four Fidelity funds recently backed an environmentalist proxy proposal for the first time on record, Ceres research found. Even though the votes cast by Fidelity funds at MGM Mirage Fidelity’s usual abstentions on shareholder environmental proposals, it is a start. Reuthers (Fidelity records first ‘green’ proxy votes, 10/9/10) goes on to note: Ceres found that like Fidelity, […]
Entrepreneurs and Democracy: A Political Theory of Corporate Governance
“From the unstable equilibrium between entrepreneurial force and social fragmentation emerges corporate governance that is both legitimate and performing,” directing the “productive action of people who want to stay autonomous and free.” The quick takeaway: corporate governance must increasingly become more democratic to be seen as legitimate. (more…)
Populism Begins in the Boardroom
There is an intriguing place where we might begin the work of a renewed economic populism: in corporations, not the capital. If the goal of populism is the amelioration of life for the many, then President Obama could strike a confounding (in a good way) pose by calling on the private sector to take up […]
Q&A on Client Directed Voting
Historically, most retail shareowners have tossed their proxies. During the first year under the “notice and access” method for Internet delivery of proxy materials, less than 6% voted. This contrasts with almost all institutional investors voting, since they have a fiduciary duty to do so. “Client directed voting” (CDV), a term coined by Stephen Norman […]
Corporate Governance: More Important than Ever with Supreme Court Decision
As the New York Times put it, “Sweeping aside a century-old understanding and overruling two important precedents, a bitterly divided Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the government may not ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections.” (Justices Overturn Key Campaign Limits, 1/22/10) Off to the right on the blog site of CorpGov.net, we […]
How to Include Employees in Decision-Making
WorldBlu looks at this important issue within a long series aimed at implementing democracy in the workplace. This segment looks at DaVita, a FORTUNE 500 company comprised of 35,000 employees with nearly $6 billion in annual revenue. It is the largest independent provider of dialysis services in the United States, operating over 1300 clinics. On a regular […]
Can We Change Voting Behavior?
We Own You!: How technology can help stockholders take control of the corporations they own, Slate.com, 1/12/10. Eliot Spitzer writes, “Twitter, text messages, YouTube, and other technology transformed politics in 2008. This success raises a compelling question: Can the same technology awaken the more dormant world of corporate democracy?… Could proxy voting in 2011 generate the […]
Whole Foods: Progress But Still a Lapdog Board
As I previously posted, Whole Foods Splits Positions, WFMI’s shareowners are making progress. Now, I see from their SEC filing they did more than split CEO and Chair positions. Additionally, our board of directors amended Article IX of our bylaws to provide that, in order for shareholders to approve an amendment to, or a Bylaw […]
Fix the Boards – Fix the System
Gillespie and Zweig hit all the bases for a solid home run. They tell us how the game is fixed and how the rules can be changed to play fair. After all, shareowners own the "ball" and all the other equipment. Will we listen? Even more importantly, will we act?
CorpGov Bites
Check out the CorpGov Blog, a work in progress. After years of demands that we have indexed articles, an RSS feed and other advantages of blogs, we’re finally beginning to adapt. With our 15th anniversary coming up in 2010, maybe it is time to join the 21st century. Your feedback is appreciated, either via e-mail […]
October 2002
Webster Named The US Securities and Exchange Commission voted to approve five members of a new national accounting oversight board to be headed by ex-FBI-CIA chief William Webster whose only experience in accounting, as far as we know, was heading the auditing committee of U.S. Technologies, now bankrupt and facing fraud accusations. Shortly before Webster […]
Review – The New Global Investors & Working Capital Contrasted
Monks, Robert A. G., The New Global Investors: How Shareowners Can Unlock Sustainable Prosperity Worldwide, Capstone Publishing, 2001. Like many, Robert Monks recognizes that corporations have become the most dominant institution of our time. While they appear to be the most effective tool for creating wealth ever created, they also exact a growing cost…primarily the corruption […]
CalPERS muzzles critics
CalPERS Ballot rules protect board, keep others in the dark “Self-serving” is what one critic called the vote last week to sharply limit what candidates for the California Public Employees Retirement System board can include in their ballot statements. Certainly, “self-serving” is one word that characterizes that vote. “Anti-democratic,” “chilling” and “wrong” are among the […]