One of the oft-overlooked subjects, in a time of so many complaints about corporate abuses and power, is corporate law itself - the rules governing corporations. They are not carved in stone and should be reviewed and, I would argue, changed substantially.

The in-effect legal requirement that corporate officers are duty-bound first and foremost to look out for the fiduciary well-being of the stockholders - and to hell with anything else - is one of the keys underlying our troubles in the business world. What might be the change if, for example, a simple provision were inserted into federal and state law requiring that the public good be considered as an equal value alongside shareholder return? (The hammer would be a shareholder suit, same as in other cases.) I see no fair argument against, since corporations could not exist at all without implementation of a law passed under color of the authority of the nation at large - the authority of all of us.

Posted at May 31, 2005 9:47 PM in response to Early Returns, Late Posting