20 May 2004
Chip off the block

Welcome to Mr. Rodgers's neighborhood - where the only folks that matter are the shareholders:

It is immoral for any CEO not to run his company in the best possible financial way for his shareholders. I used to hold Kerry's naive view of the "all American" company, meaning all jobs in America. That was a foolish mistake on my part, and it cost my shareholders a lot of money, until I moved our entire assembly and test operation and several hundred jobs offshore in 1992.

But how far does this fiduciary duty extend? Apparently, at least in the mind of most corporate management, it covers the next quarterly profit and loss statement, and to Hel with the "longer term", now defined to be anything over 6 months!

I find that incredibly short-sighted. And, so, apparently, do a bunch of other folks - and not just the "loony Left":

It would sound like socialism if it weren't coming out of the mouths of Republicans. "The generation of people that are running corporations today," Eric explains, "all they give a damn about is what happens in the next 90 days to their stock price and when that window is going to be when they're going to jump out and pull that parachute—who cares what happens five years from now?" He's not talking about protectionism. He's talking about creating an economy that can survive the next generation. "Running a company based on shareholder wealth is a collapsible scheme! It's a short-term scheme! It's not a sustainable scheme."
Don offers an example: "What happened to the tax rebates? Everyone went to Wal-Mart and got a DVD that was made in China, which created no jobs. Thus: a jobless recovery."
Maybe it's because I'm from the Midwest, but I find the views expressed by the "conservatives" from the Rock River Valley to be much more in tune with my own views, rather than the "corporation is everything" attitude expressed by one of the captains of high tech.

Cypress Semiconductor's outspoken CEO, T.J. Rodgers, sounds off on everything from stock options to Larry Ellison.

(link) [CNET News.com]

Attention Wal-Mart Voters: Lost Jobs and Military Funerals Haunt Bush in the Heartland

(link) [The Village Voice]

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