Interesting...however, I do think that the fact that so much of stock is held in mutual funds has reduced the influence of stockholders...except for the big guys...if Wall Street does not address these problems...they will be regulated-not a good thing either.
As a matter of fact, my company just announced that their senior VP of accounting has resigned to “spend more time with family”. It seems that this individual was cooking the books for about 3 years and opened the company up to a number of lawsuits due to having to restate earnings reports going back 3 years.
This individual knew full well that the accounting reports presented to the board and the stockholders was what they wanted to see - positive and continuous growth.
But, at what cost?? Business is down . . . . way down and has been declining since news of the earnings restatement was released last year. We have experienced two rounds of layoffs and expect the doors to close within the next couple of years.
And, we used to be a leader in our industry.
The board and the stockholders knew what was going on, they just wanted culpable deniability.