Financing environmental change: a new role for Canadian environmental law.
Financial institutions occupy a central role in equity and debt markets, providing the finance that shapes economic development and thus environmental pressures. Environmental regulation has traditionally focused on development itself but not those that financially sponsor developers. To achieve an environmentally sustainable economy in Canada, new regulations and policies...

The 'indispensable tool' of shareholder suits: private securities litigation is as important as ever as a remedy for failed governance.
BOARDS OF DIRECTORS are not fulfilling their role as the shareholders' representatives--the check on the power and abuses of management--in the corporate governance scheme. First, even "independent" directors are often not truly independent. They are frequently friends or relatives of management who are unable or unwilling to...

Still no closure on disclosure: ambiguity ensures that the debate about what constitutes proper environmental disclosure goes on and on. Companies can protect themselves from uncertainty with sound environmental insurance policies, a writer argues.
Although environmental disclosure is not yet making headlines in the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal, the debate about what constitutes "adequate disclosure" of environmental liabilities is an important corporate governance issue that continues to stump auditors, regulators and institutional investors alike. For example, a...

Bonds head for ballot, but debt ceiling and priorities remain uncertain. (In Sight).
California has plunged into recession. We are faced as always, with a chronic backlog of infrastructure projects necessary to accommodate our growing population. We could certainly use some kind of economic stimulus. But the state faces a $12.4 billion budget deficit, according to the Legislative Analyst's Office. And by...

Power of suggestion: from Levy to Eisner, contemplating how the threat can be stronger than its execution.
AT ALL POINTS of the compass, we espy fraud, or greed and cupidity, or--at best--woeful governance misjudgments. To the north are Messrs. Kozlowski and Swartz, ex-high-fliers from Tyco. To the south, in view is just-indicted Bernie Ebbers of Worldcom. To the east, there parades before us the...

Shareholder Activism Goes Green.
Frustrated by legislation that is often compromised or unenforced, and legal challenges that can take years to resolve, environmental and social justice groups are challenging corporations head-on through the use of boycotts, direct action and shareholder activism. Shareholder activism is uniquely suited for a direct approach to...

No free lunch for Ankara: everything comes with a price as Turkey -- the recipient of generous US aid -- is finding out. (Business & Finance).
The end of 2001 saw the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in especially generous mood in its dealings with Turkey. A year after the country suffered its financial crisis in November 2000, the IMF awarded the beleaguered Turkish economy a hefty USS 10 billion of new loans. Economy...

After Enron.
The Enron scandal is a supermarket of corporate crime, fraud, and abuse. There are already twelve Congressional subcommittees investigating this proliferating Enron scandal. But Congress, whose members are marinated in campaign contributions from Enron and its accountant, Arthur Andersen, cannot just hold hearings and occasionally return campaign contributions. ...

It's your money they're after.
THE Administration learned a lesson when Congress rejected its stimulus package last year. Why risk busting the deficit or raising taxes for things you can sneak through "off budget"? This time the Clintonites want low-income housing, infrastructure, and other "investments" to be financed by your pension funds. ...

The 10 commandments of ownership.
Here is a set of guidelines for institutionalized investors in exercising their role as responsible professional owners. Economists now estimate that approximately 47% of the private capital in the U.S. economy is controlled by public pension funds, corporate pension funds, and other institutional investors. The trend is continuing and...