Tag: Governance

“Ownership” is not a simple concept. I own my umbrella, and companies are owned by their shareholders. The word means different things in different situations.

The Bank of England should get on with the job of setting interest rates and other monetary activities, and be held accountable for how well it performs. Instead, everyone wants to retain control over decisions while shedding responsibility for outcomes.

How are we to deal with businessmen who won’t play fair? There are three responses, and the one most under-rated is to regulate by a system of values.

The issue has existed for as long as there have been social institutions; yet two decades ago, the term ‘corporate governance’ had not been coined.

Piece rates are out of fashion but incentive contracts for top executives are in. Perhaps we will soon discover that the problems caused by piece rates also dog share option schemes.

We would be better off if executives involved spent more time minding the store, rather than negotiating to buy each other's stores - so here is a proposal to put sand in the wheels of the takeover machine.

We are converging on the plc as the only form of economic organisation in the modern world. But this is not without costs - and it is because we are not giving viable alternatives any legal encouragement.

The stakeholding view of the nature and purposes of corporations applies most forcefully to monopoly public utilities. This essay analyses some of the problems of utility regulation and proposes a stakeholding alternative.