Quote Originally Posted by Hosakawa Tito View Post



Perhaps, but being richly rewarded for it should be. Management has the right to manage, but that doesn't infer the right to mis-manage.
Thats just populism.

A company can hire a monkey as CEO if it so desires. The responsibility to ensure that a business is managed correctly lies with the board and the investors, not the government.

Somewhere along the line, these golden parachutes had to be disclosed to, if not approved by, shareholders. They certainly weren't on the first page of the annual report, but the information was acessible. If a shareholder didn't believe in that sort of compensation, it was his responsibility to sell the stock or lobby to get it changed.

I remember an older gentleman who invested that I used to help after school for required service hours. He watched his stocks every day and took an active interest in the companies he "owned". He could recite business plans, past and present variables, and even bios on important people in management.

Nowadays, you're lucky to find someone who checks their investments more than quarterly - more often than not its annually. 401ks and the like have thrown a huge number of people in the market who don't really know how it works or even care as long as they make money; then when things go bad, they're all looking for someone to blame. In general, the market has become a far more impersonal atmosphere with more and more power put in the hands of brokers who more than likely all go to the same country club.

If people dont have the time to educate themselves on what they are buying into, maybe they should invest in something less risky. /endrant