The Business Tipping (Pitchfork) Moment

In the past weeks since my post on the Pension Tipping Point, the business landscape has begun to solidify into an overall Business Tipping Point for the future post crash. Today's appointment of a Compensation Czar on top of the recent restructuring of the auto industry are the markers we can use to shine a light on the future. See the attached Wall St. Journal article http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124464909136002467.html and there is a similar New York Times article.

About four years ago Ira Kay and I met with the corporate governance leaders and CIOs of the largest holders/managers of US defined contribution and defined benefit assets including CalPERS, Fidelity, TIAA/CREF, Legg Mason and others. The topic I helped broker was a discussion about the importance for corporate boards and their advisers to better manage executive compensation in order to avoid what they perceived as the inevitable day that government would intervene. While we all agreed to disagree on many aspects of the problem, there was no disagreement that we were headed for the "pitchfork moment" as Ira has been quoted on recently.

In the coming weeks I will address some of the key issues as I see them and conclude with an interview in the August issue of Smart Business on this tipping (pitchfork) moment in American capitalism.