28 June 2006
Bush Policy-Making
It has long been evident that the actions of the George W. Bush administration are taken as the result of a backwards procedure of policy-making. The objective of each action comes to Bush as a "vision" from deep inside him. Then policy is made to comply with that vision.
The administration has selected senior officials who are willing to be Bush's "yes-men." These sycophants include Condoleeza Rice, Colin Powell, and Tony Snow. I'm not sure whether Donald Rumsfeld belongs to that category, or to the special category led by Vice President Cheney -- sources of Bush's inspirations. In any case, the policy makers in the administration have taken their cues from Bush when he has set a course based on the guidance of his infallible spiritual or behind the scenes mortal sources.
It has long been evident that the actions of the George W. Bush administration are taken as the result of a backwards procedure of policy-making. The objective of each action comes to Bush as a "vision" from deep inside him. Then policy is made to comply with that vision.
The administration has selected senior officials who are willing to be Bush's "yes-men." These sycophants include Condoleeza Rice, Colin Powell, and Tony Snow. I'm not sure whether Donald Rumsfeld belongs to that category, or to the special category led by Vice President Cheney -- sources of Bush's inspirations. In any case, the policy makers in the administration have taken their cues from Bush when he has set a course based on the guidance of his infallible spiritual or behind the scenes mortal sources.
09 June 2006
Zarqawi’s Death Doesn’t Matter
The “extermination” of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi does too little, too late for the establishment of order in Iraq. He was successful instructing the competing factions in that country how to use terrorism to achieve their parochial goals. Yes, he took sides in that struggle – targeting Shia victims, after first making a name for himself by kidnapping and beheading American symbols of occupation. Nevertheless, his primary accomplishment was to show all the national communities in Iraq that they did not have to acquiesce to imposed combination within artificial borders, if only they take matters into their own disruptive hands.
Now Zarqawi is a martyr. You can’t win against Islamic terrorism by fighting its perpetrators. The only solution is painstakingly to convince their followers that life matters, and to assure that the joys of living are within their reach.
The “extermination” of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi does too little, too late for the establishment of order in Iraq. He was successful instructing the competing factions in that country how to use terrorism to achieve their parochial goals. Yes, he took sides in that struggle – targeting Shia victims, after first making a name for himself by kidnapping and beheading American symbols of occupation. Nevertheless, his primary accomplishment was to show all the national communities in Iraq that they did not have to acquiesce to imposed combination within artificial borders, if only they take matters into their own disruptive hands.
Now Zarqawi is a martyr. You can’t win against Islamic terrorism by fighting its perpetrators. The only solution is painstakingly to convince their followers that life matters, and to assure that the joys of living are within their reach.
02 June 2006
Company Performance and Stock Price
The concern of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan reported in the June 1, 2006, Wall Street Journal about how Canadian CEO pay packages don’t appear to be linked to their companies’ stock market performance demonstrates the potential divergence of the interests of powerful investors and the interests of other stakeholders in those companies. More significantly, it illustrates a possible separation of the goals of pension plan managers and beneficiaries of those plans.
Boards of Directors supposedly represent shareholders’ interests; but top management must also answer to the concerns of employees, suppliers, customers, public officials and citizens of the host community. Moreover, a company’s stock price may move with short-term impacts on its performance and the “spin” the CEO can lay on its quarterly results more closely than with its prospects for long-term growth and profitability.
The recent scandals involving the backdating of stock options in executives’ pay packages highlight what the effect can be from identifying company performance with stock market valuation. Particularly in the case of a large pension fund like the OTPP, the investor is probably better off using microeconomic measures of a company’s performance rather than the price of its stock. Such a long-term investor needs to asses its holdings on the basis of their likely value over a period that is closer to the time horizon of its clients than to the compensation horizon of its portfolio managers.
The concern of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan reported in the June 1, 2006, Wall Street Journal about how Canadian CEO pay packages don’t appear to be linked to their companies’ stock market performance demonstrates the potential divergence of the interests of powerful investors and the interests of other stakeholders in those companies. More significantly, it illustrates a possible separation of the goals of pension plan managers and beneficiaries of those plans.
Boards of Directors supposedly represent shareholders’ interests; but top management must also answer to the concerns of employees, suppliers, customers, public officials and citizens of the host community. Moreover, a company’s stock price may move with short-term impacts on its performance and the “spin” the CEO can lay on its quarterly results more closely than with its prospects for long-term growth and profitability.
The recent scandals involving the backdating of stock options in executives’ pay packages highlight what the effect can be from identifying company performance with stock market valuation. Particularly in the case of a large pension fund like the OTPP, the investor is probably better off using microeconomic measures of a company’s performance rather than the price of its stock. Such a long-term investor needs to asses its holdings on the basis of their likely value over a period that is closer to the time horizon of its clients than to the compensation horizon of its portfolio managers.
