Carl Invokes Churchill, But Will The Icahn Report Be His Finest Hour?
Carl Icahn recent investments have been a mixed bag, including his high profile battle with Yahoo! (YHOO-NASDAQ) and a lessor known drubbing in WCI Communities (WCI-NYSE) .
And the big fella is not moving as quickly as he did in his younger days, at least when it comes to launching his long anticipated blog. But it is up, and he is live, railing on about accountability, among other things, in corporate America:
To paraphrase Winston Churchill, "democracy might not be the greatest system there is but it is the greatest system mankind has invented so far." Many American corporations are dysfunctional because corporate democracy is a myth in the United States. They run like a decaying socialistic state. Our boards and CEOs exist in a symbiotic relationship where the boards nourish the CEO with massive stock options that are re-priced downward if the companies stock declines - making them forever valuable. They reward the CEO with pay packages and bonuses when the stock is floundering or the CEO is leaving the company. Corporate performance and the shareholders welfare seldom enter the picture. What kind of democracy is this? There is no accountability. Icahn Report
Another post is old-school, vintage Carl:
When the CEO retires the assistant becomes the CEO. And remember what I told you. He’s a survivor. He would never have anyone underneath him as his assistant that’s brighter than he is because that might constitute a threat. So therefore, with many exceptions, we have CEOs becoming dumber and dumber and dumber. We can all see where this is going. It would almost be funny if it wasn’t such a threat to our ability to compete and to our economy in general.
Welcome to the blogosphere Carl, but step gingerly. Jim Chanos wants duplicates of your emails, but I just want to get on your blogroll. How do you feel about quid pro quo?
Nice to meet you, hope you’re intelligent.
Corporate Democracy is a Myth
The Icahn Report
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