Where was the Board?

What happened with GM, Freddy & Fanny Mac, AIG and the rest shows that the board of directors in all these companies was not doing their job. Clearly, it seems that some reform in the way a board of directors should function is now overdue. It’s not the first time in which board of director prudence and accountability is in question; the Enron and WorldCom scandals paved the way for that “sleeping at the wheel” behavior.

Meanwhile, the alarming rise in U.S. senior executive salaries and compensation packages - packages that exceed compensation increases for previous economic expansions - further lower shareholders’ confidence in the system. Under the Bush presidency, executives were granted large compensation packages despite unprofitable (or dysfunctional) business models paving the way for scandals that brought us to the edge of depression…

It’d be nice if we could return to an era when boards of directors represented that “other player” that's critical for a market economy, namely the shareholders instead of “brown-nosing” their CEO; what a concept that would be! It’s about time congress reforms what’s has become a woefully dysfunctional corporate institution. Let’s remind our congressmen and senators about it; in the meantime shame to these useless and incompetent board members that have no balls and brains to match!