The Corporate Monitoring Newsletter
Issue #22 - February 2006
Written by Mark Latham
IN THIS ISSUE:
1. New website for media reform -- www.turbodemocracy.org
2. Article Forthcoming in Journal of Investment Management
3. Turbo Democracy for Taiwan
4. Metro One Shareowners Vote on Proxy Advisor Proposal
5. Electoral Reform Spreads from British Columbia to California
_________________________________________________________________
1. NEW WEBSITE FOR MEDIA REFORM - WWW.TURBODEMOCRACY.ORG
I have built a new website to promote political news media reform
based on the ideas of corporate monitoring. Shareowners electing
directors face similar information problems as citizens electing
political leaders. Both corporate and civic governance can be
improved by voter funding of information - proxy advisors for
shareowners and news media for citizens.
www.turbodemocracy.org offers $10,000 for a test implementation of
this new voter information system in a university student council
election. The reasons, steps, ballot design, expected participant
profiles, frequently asked questions and answers are displayed.
I have contacted students at University of British Columbia to
pitch this offer - stay tuned!
Detailed reasoning is in the updated paper “Turbo Democracy” at
www.turbodemocracy.org/publications.htm .
_________________________________________________________________
2. ARTICLE FORTHCOMING IN JOURNAL OF INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT
My article “Proxy Voting Brand Competition” has been accepted for
publication in the Journal of Investment Management (www.joim.com) .
Based on working paper “Vote Your Stock”, it argues for letting
individual shareowners conveniently copy institutional investor
voting decisions; paying proxy voting advisors with corporate funds;
and selecting auditors by shareowner vote. Regarding corporate
social responsibility and externalities, I take Milton Friedman to
task for advocating a government solution while neglecting a
private-sector solution.
_________________________________________________________________
3. TURBO DEMOCRACY FOR TAIWAN
I visited Taiwan for one month, November November 18 - December 16,
2005, exchanging ideas on democracy, media reform and corporate
governance. It's a fascinating political situation with sharply
divided partisan news media - see my report at
www.turbodemocracy.org/TDforTaiwan.htm .
_________________________________________________________________
4. METRO ONE SHAREOWNERS VOTE ON PROXY ADVISOR PROPOSAL
At their June 16, 2005 AGM, shareowners of Metro One
Telecommunications [ticker: INFO] voted 11.4% in favor of my
proposal to hire a proxy advisor paid with company funds. Most
investors do not yet appreciate how this would help them monitor
management to improve the stock return. I expect that the benefits
will be proven first in civic politics (starting with university
student council elections) and spread to corporate elections later.
Further info is linked from www.corpmon.com .
_________________________________________________________________
5. ELECTORAL REFORM SPREADS FROM BRITISH COLUMBIA TO CALIFORNIA
The pathbreaking political reform process pioneered in British
Columbia in 2004-2005 is now being proposed for the state of
California by a bipartisan pair of legislators. 160 randomly
selected B.C. citizens spent one year deliberating to recommend a
new electoral system for the province. This process was highly
regarded for its quality and its independence of partisan politics.
Now California is considering a similar strategy to cut through
partisan gridlock. Republican Assemblyman Keith Richman and
Democrat Assemblyman Joe Canciamilla propose to randomly select a
group of “average voters to serve for one year to come up with
reforms that could include anything from creating a unicameral
legislature, campaign finance reform or changing term limits.”
Details at http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/01/27/BAG8AGTRAE1.DTL
Meanwhile in British Columbia, the resulting referendum vote failed
so narrowly to reached its 60% supermajority requirement that
another vote is planned following a broader education campaign.
More at www.citizensassembly.bc.ca .
Back to newsletter list |