The few major shareholders typically are very large investors only 
interested in short term gains. The typical individual stockholder gets 
a proxy vote at the annual meeting, but those few have little effect. 
The little guy needs to (like in everything else) look out for himself. 
Many times the directors are members of "the good old guy's club" and go 
along with the crowd.

One cannot just pick a place to invest based on most of the published 
info. And I have lost more money listening to my broker. I invest only 
in local stocks where I can watch what is happening there. I have seen 
for 2 years something, didn't know what was going to happen, was in our 
future. Last April I moved 2/3 of our modest nest egg from mutual funds 
to a local savings and loan and credit union. The other 3rd is in stock 
of 2 local companies, international in scope that mainly export world 
wide.  I do  occasionally shift from one to another local company. Many 
times I have friends that work for these companies  plus the local news 
for info.

No bail out and give all that money to those that were supposed to be 
watching out for us!
 
Nate Duehr wrote:
> SM Ling wrote:
>   
>>>> The government should bail out the market ...
>>>>         
>>> OK, here's my take. Back in 1929 we knew things were bad - there were
>>> Wall Street execs going to jail and committing suicide. That seems fair
>>> to me. I figure $100 million each. So if Wall Street wants $700 billion
>>> that's 7000 heads need to roll or do the perp walk.
>>>
>>> Then we'd know the problem is serious enough for that kind of money.
>>>       
>> You shall have more than 7000 heads, or may already got them.  But
>> they have gone smarter, it shall not be their heads.
>>
>> How can these executives took no personal risk able to reap so much
>> money at the expense of share holders, customer, rank-and-file
>> workers, and the society?  
>>     
>
> Where are the shareholders who are supposed to be holding the Board of 
> Director's feet to the fire about the value lost on overly-expensive 
> executives?  That's one piece of the puzzle.
>
> Until people who "hold shares" really believe they have an effect on a 
> company's bottom line decisions, and start banding together to DEMAND 
> proper management, this particular problem continues.
>
> "Shareholder Unions" perhaps?  Large organizations that collectively 
> hold enough of the Board's capital (and attention span) that they can 
> demand a particular company act a certain way?
>
>   
>> I hope that the US congress not only put a
>> cap to the executive pay, but also shall go after the heads of the
>> past executives as well as the board.  This shall be a good wake up
>> call for executives and boards of other sectors.
>>     
>
> The government made the executive pay problem WORSE when they forced the 
> pay scales to be published.  It instantly created a "market" where CEO's 
> could look at the public records of other companies their size to see 
> where their PEERS were paid at, instead of focusing on the business at 
> hand.
>
> Executive pay jumped multiple times in just a few years surrounding the 
> mandatory publishing rules for their salaries in corporate documents. 
> The "fix" had the exact opposite effect, yet government and business did 
> nothing to close the books again, and force executives to ASK others 
> what they got paid, which still has social taboos in our society, 
> slowing the competition effect that was created by publishing them.
>
> But anyway, water under the bridge... today the shareholders MUST demand 
> lower executive salaries and better returns because of it, to get 
> executive pay under control.  With most of the largest shareholders made 
> up of the executives and their business school cronies -- in the form of 
> large mutual funds and hedge funds -- they have no reason to go after 
> their contemporaries.
>
> Small investors don't stand a chance unless they band together in sizes 
> equitable to the largest institutional investors.
>
> Nate
>   
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