Saul Alinsky Wins at the SEC

WSJ ^ | 083010 | Review and Outlook

[Fred]

The Reaganites who came to Washington in 1981 used to say that "personnel is policy." Flash forward to 2009 at the Securities and Exchange Commission, where Chairman Mary Schapiro handed senior roles to former union pension fund officials and last week rewarded such funds with more influence over corporate America.

With another of her patented 3-2 party-line votes, Ms. Schapiro has given the big pension funds a power they have never had—the ability to force their preferred candidates for board directors on the proxy ballots that public companies must send to shareholders.

Shareholders who have owned 3% of a company for at least three years will now be able to nominate candidates who would represent up to 25% of a company's board. Until now, pension funds and other dissident shareholders had to pay to mount their own campaigns and mail their own notices to shareholders. But the pension funds rarely did so because they would have had to justify spending their beneficiaries' assets with evidence that their activism was actually increasing the value of the investment. Not likely.

Sold in the name of "shareholder democracy," this new rule will mainly be used not by mom and pop investors, but by union funds and other politically motivated organizations seeking to force mom and pop to support causes they otherwise would not.

[Alter Kaker]

So? If you own the company you should be able to call the shots. I blame the lack of competitive proxy elections for the completely insane levels of CEO pay these days -- a little game that steals money from shareholders to feather beds of corporate insiders.

As an investor it makes my blood boil to see a company I own stock pay its owner $100 million in a year in which my stock depreciates 50%.

[Shermy]

Hysterical WSJ article.

Ah, shareholders might get some voice. Sounds like democracy.
Alinsky? Over the top.

[pappyone]

Misleading title, this post has absolutely nothing to do with the South Eastern Conference. Which, of course, is all that matters this time of year. Roll Tide

[Fred]

lol, kinda creative though.

[AndyJackson]

Yes, imagine that. Shareholders getting to nominate their own candidates for the board of a corporation. Thank goodness we have the WSJ there to protect the owners of a corporation from their own stupidity in thinking that they know anything about the business.