Little more than a decade after consumers binged on inexpensive mortgages that helped bring on a global financial crisis, a new debt surge — this time by major corporations — threatens to unleash fresh turmoil. A decade of historically low interest rates has allowed companies to sell record amounts of bonds to investors, sending total…
Proposed Legislation: Tax excessive CEO pay
The Tax Excessive CEO Pay Act, introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders and Representatives Barbara Lee and Rashida Tlaib, would raise the corporate tax rate for any companies that pay their executive 50 times more than their typical workers. The bill begins with a 0.5 percent tax. The worst offending companies that pay their CEO more…
VEA Vice Chair Nell Minow on Motley Fool Money: We Work, McDonald’s, and More
VEA Vice Chair Nell Minow appeared on Motley Fool Money to talk about current issues in corporate governance including We Work and a wave of CEO departures.
Commissioner Jackson on Disclosure of Political Contributions
November 18, 2019 The Honorable Carolyn B. Maloney Chair, Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship, and Capital Markets United States House of Representatives 2308 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515-3212 VIA ELECTRONIC DELIVERY Dear Chair Maloney: Thank you for your July 15 letter regarding my research on the need for transparency in corporate political spending—and…
Taking a closer look at female board appointments
[T]he demands for greater board diversity continue, raising the question of whether external pressure from shareholders, media, and advocacy groups actually causes firms to appoint women to their boards. The answer is yes, a new study concludes, but there’s a catch: Firms under pressure to appoint female directors tend to do so by adding board…
Not a Surprise: Corporate Insiders and Designers of Excessive Pay Plans Love the Proposed SEC Rule
The full-on avalanche of corporate insider-funded efforts to suppress shareholder votes and access to independent research continues. It’s all about killing the messenger. If they can’t convince shareholders on the merits, they will tilt the playing field so sharply it’s just about perpendicular. We’ll be reporting on some of the most appalling examples. Longtime apologist…
Ceres: Blueprint for Boards on Climate Risk Assessment
Some 73 major U.S. companies recorded material hits to earnings from extreme weather events in one year, while supply-chain disruptions from climate change jumped 29% over the past six years. Once again, we emphasize that ESG is not a trade-off of shareholder value; it is a more sophisticated way of assessing risk. A new report…
Retail Shareholder Participation in the Proxy Process: Monitoring, Engagement
From: Alon Brav, Matthew D. Cain, and Jonathon Zytnick We study retail shareholder voting using a detailed and nearly universal sample of anonymized retail shareholder voting records over the period 2015-2017. Contrary to public perception, we find that retail shareholders are an influential voting bloc, affecting as many proposal outcomes as the Big Three asset…
UK Labour Proposal: Climate change: Firms failing to tackle crisis will be delisted from stock exchange
Companies that fail to act on the climate change they cause will be axed from the stock exchange, under radical Labour plans. John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, pledged his government would ensure firms are “pulling their weight” to tackle the “existential threat” to the planet. And he warned: “For those companies not taking adequate steps…
U.S. Chamber Letter on H.R. 5084, the “Improving Corporate Governance through Diversity Act of 2019” | U.S. Chamber of Commerce
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce supports H.R. 5084, the “Improving Corporate Governance through Diversity Act of 2019,” which the House is expected to vote on today. The Chamber supports efforts to increase gender, racial, and ethnic diversity on corporate…
