We've now seen two financial firms fail in the subprime mortgage mess--Countrywide Financial and Bear Stearns. What do they share in common? Spectacularly bad corporate governance. There's been a long-running debate among shareholder activists and corporate leaders whether "good governance" equals "good business," or merely consists of...
Right now, a lot of people are piling on Eliot Spitzer for portraying himself as being so righteous in stamping out evil even while reportedly seeking out the services of high-priced call girls. People seem to be surprised. But I'm not. I was very lonely out there in the...
I made that pronouncement in my previous posting and now I'm being challenged to explain what I mean. I relish the opportunity. This is more than a one- or two-quarter recession. This is the end of a nearly 30-year cycle that started when Ronald Reagan took office...
Countrywide Financial Chief Executive Officer Angelo Mozilo seems to have finally obtained some public relations advice--he's announcing that he'll voluntarily give up $37.5 million in severance and consulting pay in connection with Bank of America's takeover of his failed firm. He made this announcement the day before Countrywide reported $422 million...
Okay, let's get real. We've had a series of colossal failures--Chuck Prince at Citicorp, Stanley O'Neal at Merrill Lynch and Angelo Mozilo at Countrywide Financial. All three are losing their jobs or their companies, yet each is walking away with at least $50 million in golden parachutes. This...
Christopher Cox, chairman of the SEC, is taking some heat for a 3-1 decision last week that would prevent shareholders from placing their own candidates for a company's board of directors on that company's proxy ballot. But Cox did the right thing on the issue that is known as "shareholder...
Glass Lewis & Co. is one of the cops on the beat. Although not as powerful as Institutional Shareholder Services ISS, Glass Lewis' ratings of companies and their corporate governance practices really matter. And in contested proxy battles, many investors turn to Glass Lewis for its opinion. ...
President Bush is in the waning days of an administration that has underachieved expectations, to put it charitably. But there's still one thing he could get right—naming two of the right kind of Democrats to the Securities & Exchange Commission and thereby driving a stake into the heart of shareholder...
When A.G. Lafley went to Brazil not long ago, he went on walking tours through the tough barrios of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo to see how consumers were buying and using Procter & Gamble products. Just to be on the safe side, he hired some...
It takes a pretty confident CEO to engineer a deal that puts Steve Jobs on his board--where Jobs could emerge as chairman. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] But part of the reason Bob Iger may have felt so self-assured was the faith he had in his...
Articles 2006-03-01
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