Companies May Fail, but Directors Are in Demand

[groovedaddy]

For 16 years, Marshall A. Cohen served as a director of the American International Group, stepping down just months before the company’s near-collapse in 2008. Several months later, Mr. Cohen was again in demand, joining the board of Gleacher & Company, a New York investment bank.

Gleacher expanded its board last year to include not only Mr. Cohen but Henry S. Bienen, who served as a director of Bear Stearns from 2004 until its rescue by JPMorgan Chase in March 2008.

On the second anniversary of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, appointments like those of Mr. Cohen and Mr. Bienen highlight how the directors of the companies at the center of the financial crisis — A.I.G., Bear Stearns and Lehman itself — still play an active role in the governance of corporate America.

“In too many cases, the radioactivity of a board member of a collapsed company has a half life measured in milliseconds,” said John Gillespie, a longtime Wall Street investment banker and the co-author of “Money for Nothing” (Free Press), a recent book on corporate boards.

http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/companies-may-fail-but-directors-are-in-demand/?th&emc=th

[jtuck004]

1. I am increasingly certain we should think about action on this...

Companies hire clowns like this in the hopes that they will destroy their company in the same way. Rake in LOTS and LOTS of money for a few at the top, no liability, workers can go to hell, don't care. Screw the taxpayers or not, don't care.

The goal is to get a large amount of money for directors and a few top people like the CEO, CFO, etc.

I don't think we can out compete them financially. I really do think that unless we decide that such a course of action agrees with our collective moral compass and begin a campaign to make these people less desirable in the community and business world than a local child molester we are going to have this same thing happening again, and again. Assuming we climb out of this time.

The rich and greedy simply have too much room to act like they want to, and too many people defending them. Far too many people have been hurt by them to let it alone.

So where is my thinking wrong? I know it is a tall order to go up against a culture that says that kind of behavior is ok, even desirable. Should I find a more positive way to look at it? Action on this wouldn't lift anyone else up, but how can they get up with such heavy boots on them? Is that just an excuse to keep the wealthy in their vacation homes and Mercedes limousines?