Editorials
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Medical research needs MPT
Academics at MIT and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston propose applying modern portfolio theory to medical research to save lives and money. Some critics are reacting angrily.
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Preparing for austerityThe results of the elections in France and Greece have lessons for this country's political leaders, but they probably will learn the wrong lesson. That would be unfortunate for the nation.
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Fed no friend of DB plansThe quote: “The faster I run, the behinder I get” is certainly true for the nation's 100 largest corporate defined benefit pension plans.
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Action needed on pension relief
The U.S. House of Representatives has not included pension funding relief in its version of the highway bill, as the U.S. Senate has done in its version.
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BATS IPO failure not all badBATS Global Markets' failed IPO might have been a disaster for executives of the company and its owners who wanted to recoup some of their investment, but it likely will be a blessing to institutional and other investors.
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Save the money marketMary Schapiro, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, in an effort to make money market funds safer for investors through tighter regulation, could end up eliminating such funds as an option for investors.
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Exposing wrongdoingInstitutional investors and companies should be beefing up their internal compliance programs in the face of the Securities and Exchange Commission's whistleblower program, adopted last year under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
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Where are the funds?Many public and union pension funds, along with other institutional shareholder activists, regard proxy access as the holy grail of corporate governance. But they have filed few proposals calling for corporations to allow shareholder access to corporate proxy materials to nominate directors.
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The cost of low ratesCompanies might have to contribute large amounts for at least the next several years because of weak markets and the Federal Reserve's monetary policy, which will keep interest rates low and liability values high.
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Unease with say on payBecause “say-on-pay” voting has not reined in executive compensation as much as some corporate governance reformers had hoped, the question becomes: Should more teeth be put into the shareholder vote, perhaps even making it binding?