Caps on CEO pay are fine, BUT

[Raven]

we really need to restore the concept of "fiducuary responsibility to shareholders"

My father was a Director of AT&T and other corporations for years. I think he was a Director of AT&T for 30 years, from the '50's to the '80's. There was a monthly Directors' meeting in NYC and I think he got $100 for attending. He used to talk about decisions and making them based on what was good for the stockholders (which, by the way, were a ton of little old people who had placed their retirement nest eggs in the company's hands, and, for him, by extension, in his hands). He had such a commitment to doing what was the right thing for shareholders...he must be turning in his grave to see the excesses and the greed. Something really changed in the 80's-90's and we need to get back to the concept that we all have a responsibility to eachother...Obama needs to talk about this.

[patrice]

1. "Responsibility to each other" NEEDS to be described, defined, and discussed collaboratively.

Where do I sign up?

[Raven]

2. I know. And it's not a new concept. We just lost it in the feeding frenzy.

[patrice]

6. It's going to be hard to get back because the frenzy could increase and the best feeders

will be the ones to survive. Look for herds of them tracking certain kinds of money-memes, including religion.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

3. Because in some cases, "responsibility to the shareholders" means

"do ANYTHING, including screwing over employees and local communities, to increase shareholders' dividends."

The old-style board members were not infected with the Reaganite disease of Robber Baron Worship. They understood without being told that companies had a responsibility to be good citizens as well as money supplies for their shareholders.

[rrneck]

7. Hear, hear. Well said. nt

[Donnachaidh]

4. that something was Reaganomics

Greed Gone Wild.

[stillcool]

5. I don't see any lack of concern..

for major stock holders in any corporation.

[On the Road]

8. Predivestiture AT&T Used the Old "Three-Cornered Stool" Approach

- Shareholders
- Employees
- Customers

If any leg is removed, the whole thing falls down.

I agree that corporate governance is broken. Probably around the time Reagan was elected, executives started keeping more and more of the profits and were allowed to run free by the boards.

I don't particularly care about bemoaning the situation like a lot of folks here do. I just want to fix it. There are likely to be some simple changes which would go a long ways. One is towards removing cronyism by having labor and possibly lower management have representation, or mandating a selection process that results in board members not being nominated by the CEO and subsequently indebted to management.

The other part of it is shareholder action. Most proxy votes are useless because the large stockholders are pension funds who always support management. Frankly I don't know why they allow this, but there needs to be a better mechanism for preventing execs from walking off with too much of the profits.