Pension Apartheid is alive - Equifax CEO leaves with $18 Mio

Juicy Pensions for the Few (Marketwatch)
(28-Sept-2017)

Fund fees in Regulator's crosshairs

Worthwhile but missing the main target - the management and performance fees charged are the elephant in the room, esp with Hedge Funds and even morse so with 'Private' Equity where management takes out compensation that makes the pay debate at listed companies trivial by comparison.
(26-Sept-2017)
Financial News (Paid content)

UK White Paper on Governance - a missed Opportunity

The recently published White Paper on corporate governance reform is a missed opportunity argues Richard Buxton, CEO at Old Mutual Global Investors and a veteran investor in UK equities.
In particular
- he doubts that publishing pay ratios will bring much of a benefit
- thinks that giving remuneration committees more powers to oversee total company pay will suffer from the practicalities that will have to be part of the process (forecasting corporate profitability and the valuation of the stock market)
Buxton would like to see an end to LTIP pay schemes and target-based schemes in general in favour of simpler rewards.

ProGov argues for a long time that bonus and incentive schemes should not favour only a narrow group of (top) executives but should be targeted at the total workforce so we are pleased to see that a senior participant in the governance debate goes quite a long way in this direction.
(23-Sept-2017)
(Daily Telegraph) (PayWall)

Defense against Activists wastes Investor's Money

Why can a company like P&G not just say NO to an 'Activist' speculator who pesters it? If Peltz wants he should rustle up enough votes to hold a shareholder meeting. Apart from that there should be protection against manipulating the shareholder register by stake building, only allow longterm holders to vote. Now THAT would be proper defense against unwanted approaches, it it would cost NOTHING, to the detriment of corporate finance 'advisers'.
(21-Sept-2017)
https://www.valuewalk.com/2017/09/pg-spending-100-million-fend-off-nelson-peltz/

NYC Pension launches another box-ticking exercise

Is this just another box-ticking exercise? What would happen if every fund manager starts shooting off these questionnaires to any and all companies it has holdings in? Would the system survive this onslaught? I am sure that it would not as 1000s of companies would have to reply to 1000s of approaches, and not just once but the corporate governance crowd would want to have its piece of flesh every year!
I think the only way something like this could work if there are clear rules and an easy way to monitor them.

Join the Debate! Or is Corporate Goverance just for Show?

NYC Pension Funds Boardroom Accountability Project Version 2.0

The Evolution of Conceptions of “Good” Corporate Governance

Another refutal of the false ideology behind Executive 'Incentive' Compensation schemes. Shame on Business Schools who should be at the forefront of getting rid of these flawed schemes rather than regurgitating the manrta of Maximising Shareholder Value.

Join the Debate! Or is all the Corporate Governance activity just for show?

(20-Sept-2017)
 Is There Hope for Change? The Evolution of Conceptions of “Good” Corporate Governance

Toys 'R' Us - the REAL Culprits are not mentioned

The 'Private' Equity firms that gamble with the Public's money on the basis of 'Heads we win, Tails you lose' are the real culprits. Rather than put real sweat money into a business they load it with tons of debt - to the max - and hope for the best (a rising market makes everyone a genius). Shame on KKR and Bain Capital, shame on the regulators that neglect the unfair advantages that 'Private' Equity firms get (tax, accounting, liability, employee relations).
(20-Sept-2017)
(Bloomberg)

Deutsche Boerse pays fine for supposed Insider Trades by CEO

Is this the proper way to handle this investigation? Is it just hush money? And who approves of these payments? Are the regulators complicit in a cover-up? And is there really no other person fit to run what was until not so long ago a quasi-public institution run for the benefit of its users? (Reuters)
(14-Sept-2017)

Top Execs sell stock just days before bad news is released

When well-paid (overpaid?) top executives behave like this one should not wonder that Capitalism and the Market System increasingly lose public support. It is only fortunate that the average citizen is not really able to properly put such blatant abuse of position into proper perspective. After all, how many do really understand what a million dollars (life changing amount for 99% of the population) means? The maths scores tell a story! And it will be interesting to see how regulators and the trustees of the savings of ordinary people (aka investment managers, private bankers) and the corporate and 'socially responsible' investment crowd are going to do about this.
(9-Sept-2017)
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/equifax-executives-sold-stock-after-data-breach-before-informing-public-2017-09-07?siteid=rss&rss=1