New Orleans   

• Yesterday we talked about Accretive Health and its totally intrusive debt collection practices for healthcare facilities, led by Catholic nonprofits.  Their “pay first, pain later” plans and cavalier access to patient records was exposed in a front page story in the New York Times.  Today, reading the Wall Street Journal I noticed that their stock fell by 53% yesterday.  Boom!  Half of the “value” of such a company, gone over night!
• The bribery scandals at Walmart has cost the huge retail company dearly and please note this was already a company where for years analysts and corporate officials have whined about their relatively low stock price.  Since the story was broken (once again in a the Times, so props where props are due!) the company has lost 5% of its share value or more than $5 billion in value.  The Walmart subsidiary listed on the Mexican exchange has lost even more and in that country the apologetic Calderon government finally shifted gears and announced an investigation into the building permits after first trying to simply state it was a problem in the Mexican states.
• A stockholder resolution denying a pay raise (to $15M!) for Vikram Pandit of Citi and its empire of ghost banks and financial services and products was approved.  It is juicy reading the business news about what Pandit and the Citi board will do with this since it was an advisory resolution.  If they ignore the stockholder vote, especially since it includes huge players, then the fiction of shareholder democracy will be totally shattered.
• A recent article even explored and seemed to question how former CEO’s that were forced or tossed out of big companies had managed to find soft berths as lucratively paid board members at other publicly owned companies.
• Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor, told of being on corporate boards and no longer being asked to serve on compensation committees setting executive pay, because “…these people aren’t looking for Dobermans; they’re looking for cocker spaniels.”
• Moxy Vote, which I have talked about before, seems to have become more aggressive judging from its emails, though I’m not sure how effective yet, in joining the push for more shareholder activism through the internet.

This isn’t Occupy Wall Street exactly, but it’s something and worth encouraging as a Shareholder Spring!

All of which made a piece  in the Times catch my eye, particularly when it included a quote from a guy with the Millstein Center for Corporate Governance and Performance at Yale (this name is too long, I give up!) who said:  “Up until now, it’s been sort of a Soviet system.  We have been operating in the United States under the myth that boards have been accountable to shareholders.”  Right on there!

Basically, the rally cry was for the small fry to unite some kind of a way and make their votes (they have no real voice) heard.

They touted a new-ish effort called Moxy Vote (www.moxyvote.com).  I checked it out, and it’s interesting enough.  I’m sure it attracted the reporter’s attention because of its cartoonish (and effective) graphics.  The upshot is that they would like to have small shareholders vote together from their website which is connected to a list of recommendations from advocates.

All good, but…

Although I signed up for Moxy Vote, it is hard to feel totally comfortable about it.  They are about as transparent and clear about governance as some of the company’s whose feet we are trying to hold to the fire.  There’s no “contact us” address so that one can ask what they are doing?  There is no “about us” that in fact even tells you who and what is behind Moxy Vote.  This is not a corporate sock puppet, but I only say that based on trust that and hope since there is nothing that reveals the names of the staff, board or funders of this operation.  If you want to become what they call an “advocate,” in other words someone who gets to put their issues out to the members, there are a number of “buttons” that say “become an advocate” but when you hit them it turns out that first you have to register (ok), and then you cannot become an advocate because it’s by “invitation only,” and there’s no way to find out how to apply or get an invitation.

So, good news that there may be some organizing going on among small shareholders to finally help curb corporate abuses, but the jury is still out on whether or not the ways and means to do so are in place yet.

Here’s hoping that Moxy Vote is one of the good ones.