Some BIG US financial sector news...

[jackellis]

And do you think any of them will suffer from their abysmal decisions? I'm just cynical enough to think not.

Unfortunately, I agree with you. Even worse, I'm not sure how to fix the problem. Boards are supposed to act in the interests of shareholders (that's those of us who own shares, directly or indirectly, whether we like it or not and whether we realize it or not). Governance at many corporations is improving, but there are still to many instances where the CEO picks his (or, less likely, her) board rather than the other way around. The compensation system is out of whack, too. I don't begrudge Lou Gerstner the half billion dollars he earned (and all the money he made for me) for turning IBM around because investors did well. I do object to allowing the managements at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to walk away with large severance packages after the mess they made.

Having investors on a board is not a perfect solution either. I served on a board at a small company where I was a founder and the majority of the board was comprised of large investors. Some were pretty good about working with management, while others were pretty disruptive.