Whoever has ever had a Board as an entrepreneur should understand this: The US Government is now the board for huge swaths of the US economy. I watched the CEOs of the automakers today plead their case before the Senate, and man, it was like board meetings I’ve been to before…
The US Government: Now The Board
Whoever has ever had a Board as an entrepreneur should understand this: The US Government is now the board for huge swaths of the US economy. I watched the CEOs of the automakers today plead their case before the Senate, and man, it was like board meetings I've been…
Indeed, and yet the required intrinsic qualities of board members e.g. fiduciary responsibility and “governance” are notably lacking. How interesting, considering we refer to them as “government”.
Realistically, politicians are about as far from financial professionals as one can get, yet we as taxpayers rely on them to make MASSIVE financial decisions that will impact not only us but also our offspring.
Counterintuitive? Counterproductive!
@Darrin @John
I think it’s important to stress that the same quality of people inherit the upper-echelons of Government as inherit the upper-echelons of Corporates.
The systems are obviously different. And oversight is important in both.
But if the men and women ‘in the room’ are good, framework sound, and oversight solid then the outcome will work.
Problems arise when the national interest is subjugated by special interest.
Thanks to John B for the metaphor.
Christopher Hire
Executive Director
2thinknow | http://www.2thinknow.com
Dude,
I hope our BoD meetings don’t have that feel(-; Congress was more interested in the optics of corporate jets than figuring out if the tax payers money would be well invested in the Big 3. My interpretation for Nancy and crew are saying “damn – we really wanted to give you $25B…scratch that…$35B even if no financial istitution on the planet thinks you could ever pay it back. BUT, the $16M/yr salaries you are getting to produce bad product that are killing the environment and flying around in your corporate jets is making it real hard….”
“Realistically, politicians are about as far from financial professionals as one can get”
True. Realistically, politicians can be turfed out if their clientele no longer care for them. And being wrong about everything for decades at a time actually damages their brand. “Financial professionals,” not so much.