« Middle East: is the die cast? | Main | Little needs to be said »
May 23, 2003
corporate governance
It has been suggested that because public opinion has a lefty focus----even hardline socialist is sometimes said----it does not understand corporate governance or the way markets work. Fair enough. I'm happy to be educated in the intricacies of the market way of life.
Well this is an example of bad corporate governance. Executive pay policies should be performance based and be approved by shareholders.
A little more democracy needs to be introduced into our corporations. Why do they need to be so hierarchical, authoritarian and bureaucratic?
An old Crikey.com article by the Mayne boy on executive payouts can be found here And this article refers to a report that further debunks the corporate myth that high pay=high performance.
This is Gilbertson's defence. A contract is a contract.
Though old lefties may not understand markets they do understand myths, especially the myths generated by the self-organizing market.
Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at May 23, 2003 06:31 PM
Comments
which 'rightie' told you 'lefties' don't understand corporate governance and market forces? whichever it doesn't matter because they obviously suffer a form of cranial inversion...head shoved up arse.
Posted by: Niall at May 23, 2003 07:25 PM
Left schmeft. Political stance has nothing to do with it. This crazy belief that the market is always right and capable of self-regulation is a load of crap. Australia's big companies are run by a small group of largely incompetent right wing old farts from the same small bunch of insular private schools and supported by the same bunch of snout-in-the-trough insto idiots. It's a closed club and the punter majority is a pawn in their game.
Greed is still good; it just has a different name in these enlightened times.
I've been ripped off so many times over the last 30 years by a succession of corporate heroes that in 1999 I took my money out of the share markets and now just trade index futures on a technical basis. It's more pure and far more lucrative. What those morons in the corporates do matters little to me now. And I know I'm no orphan.
To be fair to Gilbertson, you need to remember that he'd worked for the company that merged with BHP for a long time before taking up the CEO's role. His entitlements presumably came with him I guess. Thirty mill still sounds obscene though. Noone's worth that.
Posted by: robv; old (very) leftie at May 24, 2003 12:32 AM
Far out if you sold the nasdaq short in 2000 you must be farting through silk.
Posted by: Scott Wickstein at May 24, 2003 02:27 AM
Still lycra/cotton blend. I just work the Nikkei, Hang and local SPI on short term basis. But I'll be retiring soon and living off trading alone.
Posted by: robv; old (very) leftie at May 24, 2003 03:55 PM
robv
'This crazy belief that the market is always right and capable of self-regulation is a load of crap'
you should read John Bogle's piece on the folly of blind trust in the numbers that underpin the assumptions that drive the market..
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID380981_code030217600.pdf?abstractid=380981
Posted by: Glenn at May 25, 2003 05:21 PM