What They Do With Your Money: How the Financial System Fails Us and How to Fix It What they do with your money is central to many issues of citizens around the world. This wonderful new book by Stephen Davis, Jon Lukomnik, David Pitt-Watson helps readers connect the dots. While its focus is on the […]
Mr. Peabody and Sherman prepare to go back in time to visit corpgov.net 5, 10 and 15 years ago. Five years ago in Corporate Governance In the year-end reflections two contributing factors deserve more attention. First, “prophetic warnings” from religious groups on the dangers of subprime loans via shareowner resolutions. Second, a call from Sanford […]
Guest post from David P. Ellerman who works in the fields of economics and political economy, social theory and philosophy, mathematical logic, and quantum mechanics. His undergraduate degree was in philosophy at M.I.T. (’65), and he has Masters degrees in Philosophy of Science (’67) and in Economics (’68), and a doctorate in Mathematics (’71) all from Boston […]
This timely book, edited by Joan Loughrey, brings together academics and practitioners to assess the efficacy of directors’ duties, or lack thereof, regarding shareholder litigation in the wake of the financial crisis. Although primarily focused on the UK and the Companies Act of 2006, the part played by the US and its regulatory scheme is not […]
The following are cryptic notes and a photo taken at the 2013 Millstein Forum held June 24 & 25 at Columbia Law School. Be sure to check out the Forum’s photo gallery. I was probably paying more attention to my table-mates than the speaker but decided to post my note and an extensive interview conducted by Bill Moyers. BofA wasn’t […]
The following guest post is from Martin Hart-Landsberg, PhD who blogs at Reports from the Economic Front. I’m republishing his post (I added the subtitle to his Beyond Growth) because I believe those concerned with corporate governance need to look at corporations in context. Are corporations helping society or adding to its burdens? Cross-posted at Reports from […]
I recently got an e-mail from Frank Partnoy about his co-authored cover story in the Atlantic magazine Jan/Feb issue – just posted here. He and Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Jesse Eisinger ask “What’s Inside America’s Banks?” (more…)
Trillium Asset Management LLC, on behalf of the Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica, along with the AFSCME Employees Pension Plan recently filed a shareholder proposal with Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C, $C) asking the company’s board of directors to explore a possible separation of one or more of its business units. (more…)
The Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET), the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), and Shakespeare & Co. Booksellers hosted a remarkable evening of conversation between two economic heavyweights: Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman. (more…)
In the wake of the financial crisis of 2008-09, some observers believe that our traditional market-based, capitalistic, macro-economic business environment may be entering a new era, dubbed the “new normal,” in which economic, political and surrounding influences and circumstances will not return to their pre-crisis norms. (more…)
Marjorie Kelly is the rarest of authors, discussing some of the most difficult problems we face but doing so through an easily understood narrative of her own search for answers that is bound to draw in readers from a wide variety of backgrounds. Her analysis is insightful and the recommendations contained in Owning Our Future: […]
Someday, it will go down in history as the first trial of the modern American mafia. Of course, you won’t hear the recent financial corruption case, United States of America v. Carollo, Goldberg and Grimm, called anything like that. If you heard about it at all, you’re probably either in the municipal bond business or married […]
Enterprise Risk Management (“ERM”) as a movement has been around for more than a decade. Unfortunately, a 2010 COSO survey disclosed that only limited progress has been made convincing senior management and boards that ERM is key to maximizing and safeguarding long term enterprise value, allocating expensive human and financial resources, or managing major risks […]
Corporate Governance and the Global Financial Crisis: International Perspectives by William Sun, Jim Stewart, and David Pollard addresses the worldwide crisis that cost Americans an estimated average of $188,000 per household. We will be paying back that debt for decades… or perhaps more accurately, our children will be paying back that debt. Yes, we’ve passed the […]
Last week the Wall Street Journal printed an article describing how CEOs around the world spend their time. The article drew on data from a larger study, the Executive Time Use Project, and relied on reports of time use by CEO’s personal assistants. The article indicates that assistants only tracked activities that lasted (more…)
Bill Moyers is back on television! Here is a recent episode of “Moyers and Company,” which asks: “how did our political and financial class shift the benefits of the economy to the very top, while saddling us with greater debt and tearing new (more…)
These are some relatively quick notes that I’m sharing from the Corporate Directors Forum 2012, held on the beautiful campus of the University of San Diego, January 22-24, 2012. This post may be a cryptic… not complete sentences bt hopefully mor intelligible thN txt msgN. (more…)
According to the Commerce Department, the financial sector accounted for 8.4% of U.S. gross domestic product last year, higher than its previous peak in 2006. In 1950, the financial sector accounted for just 2.8% of GDP. (more…)
SVNACD Program 1/19/2012; 7:30-8:00 a.m. Continental Breakfast; 8:00-9:30 a.m. Palo Alto, CA The stock market still has not recovered from the meltdown of 2008, and many companies have had severe reductions in their workforces, but CEO (more…)
Can corporations’ relentless focus on maximising shareholder (more…)
Does Economic Governance Matter?: Governance Institutions and Outcomes edited by Mehmet Ugur and David Sunderland. The answer is an unqualified yes! More questionable is if citizens can shape governance to be more efficient to society as a whole. It does not require immense imagination to see that technically-feasible economic outcomes may remain socially-unfeasible if the […]
Catching up on a couple of noteworthy reviews from recent issues of Corporate Governance: an International Review. Corporate Governance and Complexity Theory by Marc Goergen, Christine Mallin, Eve Mitleton-Kelly, Ahmed Al-Hawamde and Iris Hse-Yu Chiu. Reviewer Diane Denis was hoping the application of complexity theory would lead to insights concerning how and where problems arise, […]
Unless current shareowners suffer a penalty for having CEOs who engage in earnings manipulation and insider trading they are likely to encourage such unethical and damaging behavior, finds a study by Ramy Elitzur, since choosing less ethical managers may be in the best interests of current shareholders, but not future ones. Many accountants believed that markets are efficient […]
Renowned Hawaiian musician and guitarist Makana was invited to play instrumental background music at the APEC Summit gala dinner Saturday night here in Honlulu. At the dinner, Makana opened his jacket to reveal a t-shirt which read, “Occupy with Aloha.” Then, instead of performing the background instrumental he was scheduled to play, he started to […]
Since 1979, adjusted for inflation, incomes of the broad middle class (solid blue line labeled “21st to 80th percentiles”) have increased about 40 percent, which comes to a sluggish 1 percent per year. During the same period, the incomes of the richest 1 percent have increased about 280 percent, or 7 percent per year. See […]
It was 1952 when this economics and investing video explained how to get in on the American Dream. (more…)
I live in Elk Grove, California, a suburban enclave of Sacramento… if not middle America, at least middle California. Its a town where most kids are driven to school and soccer in minivans or SUVs. Most are too busy with their daily lives and trying to hold on to underwater mortgages to join ‘occupy’ movements […]
The Robin Hood Tax CalPERS CIO on Wall Street: ‘The Game Appears Rigged’ CNBC Lawrence Lessig Occupy Wall Street Could Bridge Left And Right OCCUPY WALL STREET: WHO ARE THE 1%?, Sociological Images
Nice play on words by ai-cio.com on the title of their article, Sacramento’s Kings, interviewing two of the most influential chief investment officers in America: Chris Ailman of the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) and Joe Dear of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS). Of course, Sacramento is also home (perhaps temporarily) to […]
The NY Transit Workers Union (TWU) Local 100 voted to join the protestors in the financial District of New York City, and so have the Verizon union members. Other unions, including the Teamsters (yes, those Teamsters who once supported Ronald Reagan) have issued public statements of support for Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protests… includes video […]
Recently, ICGN held their annual conference in Paris. From the Twitter feed, it appears I missed a good one. (see ICGN Via Twitter) I’ve already mentioned Jon Lukomnik’s appeal to look again at the idea that shareowners’ interests and executives’ can be aligned through compensation strategies. I think one origin of our errors was revising the […]
What the chart (made by Calculated Risk) shows is the trajectory of job losses and gains during the great recession, compared to previous recessions. So as you can see, the depth of the decline was much worse than any other recession, and what’s more, the pace of the recovery is much weaker than in previous […]
Video from Al Jazeera on how the US got so stratified. Sometimes an outside perspective is (more…)
The US can print the same money it borrows in. It doesn’t ever have to default as long as it retains this privilege. But its creditors now know that the US can’t be trusted. This is why America’s trusted friend and car pool partner in space, Vladimir Putin, has said Americans, “Are living like parasites […]
Reframing Corporate Social Responsibility: Lessons from the Global Financial Crisis, edited by William Sun, Jim Stewart, and David Pollard, is volume 1 in an important new series: Critical Studies on Corporate Responsibility, Governance and Sustainability. Disclosure: I’m on the Editorial Advisory and Review Board of the series at the request of William Sun, who I’ve […]