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Category Archives: Capitalism

The real vanguard

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

While there remains considerable resistance in certain quarters to the idea, the real advances enjoyed in the world since the advent of the industrial age have come from commerce, from business people who respond to market signals, which ultimately are sent by consumers. That is, progress has be driven from the bottom up, not from the top down. . .

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Creative capitalism

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

The question of corporate social responsibility has taken on numerous dimensions over recent years. And now Bill Gates has added a new one, called Creative Capitalism, by means of which he wants to encourage corporations to seek out social approbation, in addition to profits. But such an aim will not be adopted as a principal or coequal aim alongside of profits without more than moral encouragement. . .

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The oracle

Thursday, February 7, 2008

The traditional offering of how owners communicate with management is via share price. The idea is that shareholders vote with their dollars, and that the resulting affect on price communicates everything managers need to know about owner intent and interest. That would appear to be entirely appropriate, and certainly consistent with the free-market theory of capitalism of which publicly-held companies are so prominent a part. After all, a vast amount of complex integration is accomplished in robust economies via the simple device of market price. But it is not sufficient to the purpose we put it to . . .

Also filed in Boards, CEOs, Corporate Governance | | Comments (3)

Managers in directors’ clothing

Monday, January 28, 2008

As we’ve seen during our recent discussion about corporate governance and capitalism, there appears to be an insurmountable disjunct between owners and managers in the corporate governance of publicly-held companies, characterized by anonymous shareholder-ownership, with respect to communication of strategic identity and intent. One would think that the obvious role of the board is to try to close this gap. But no. . .

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Capitalism and boards

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Capitalism is a system of economic organization built on the insight that when owners of labor and capital are able to deploy their assets as suits their self-interest, the wider public good tends to be served, as well. It works to the extent that its fundamentals are in play. The invention of the modern anonymous shareholder-owned corporation would seem to be a perfectly ordinary extension of capitalism. It certainly has been a boon to the world economy. It has enabled vast amounts of capital to be mobilized and deployed into commercially viable projects that could never have been conceived of, before. But . . .

Also filed in Boards, Corporate Governance | | Comments (1)