Monday, December 06, 2004

Corporate Insiders Enrich Each Other, Continued. Gretchen Morgenson (NY Times; reg req): In the Timing of Options, Many, Um, Coincidences. As executives have binged on stock options in recent years, academic studies have detailed the opportunities for fatter pay that well-timed option grants represent. By analyzing stock price behavior after option awards, these studies concluded that corporate managers systematically receive options at prices that do not reflect favorable nonpublic information. The binge of insider enrichment continues, and regulators need to do much more about this. Will they? [Dan Gillmor's eJournal] Not likley under Bush.  In fact, Bush's presidency is run more like a corporation than any since the late 20s.  The earmark of a coproration is to be on message all the time regardless of whether the company's message is truthful or not.  People would udnerstand Bush's government mroe if they imaged it to be more like General Electric than Reagan's or Clinton's White House.  What you see on West Wing is how a government should be run - policies for the btterment of the commonweal.  Bush is simply trying to maxmize shareholder value - with teh shareholders being the money men and evangelicals that helped put him in office twice. This is what makes four more years of Bush so scary - he doesn't ahve the coutnry's best interests at heart, just the corporation's. 12:19:18 AM