Human beings are wonderful amnesiacs, an observation grounded in the history of traumatic events which have faded gradually into oblivion. That may well be the case with the current pandemic. For instance, how did societies, corporations and their governance system cope with recent dramatic events (so called “Black Swans” or for the more statistically inclined […]

By the late 2000s, independent directors were in the majority on the boards of almost every type of U.S. organization. While this achievement may have improved corporate governance, it was not the panacea that some had anticipated, as subsequent events like the financial crisis of 2008 brought down even some of the best governed corporations. […]

By the late 2000s, the goal that boards should be made up of a majority of independent members had been achieved in almost every type of organization. While this achievement may have raised the quality of governance, it turned out that independent boards were not the panacea that some had anticipated. Events since, in particular […]

Once upon a time, the governance of publicly listed corporations was a friendly, fraternal affair with few requirements and little risk. Then, during the 1980s, a group of funds (leveraged buyout funds) sprouted up claiming that this sort of governance deprived shareholders of the full economic value of the business they had invested in. Cozy […]

The federal minister of finance is wrong to think a national securities commission would lower risk. Give the federal minister of finance his due: He is nothing if not persistent. Rebuffed by the Supreme Court of Canada in a unanimous and blunt judgment, the minister is trying to squeeze a national securities commission through the […]

Five years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the Forum:Blog will be publishing a number of personal views by key figures on the event and its implications. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily the World Economic Forum. A great deal of pain was inflicted on ordinary, innocent people by the financial […]

“An influential group including representatives of Canada’s business, regulatory and academic circles is calling for an end to the “mistake” of rewarding executives with stock options. The Institute for the Governance of Private and Public Organizations issued the bold challenge Tuesday as part of package of recommendations aimed at reining in executive pay and tying […]

In a profanity-laden interview with Terence Corcoran of the National Post (January 6th 2011), Professor Michael Jensen rejects the accusation in Roger Martin’s latest book that he is the spiritual father of the shareholder-value maximization movement. True enough; in the seminal Jensen-Meckling article of 1976 that Martin singles out as the source of this abomination, […]

The financial crisis of 2007-08 has generated new rules, regulations and guidelines to cope with the flaws and faults of the international financial system. What kind of regulatory context is likely to evolve from this massive effort? Will it be sufficient to prevent the next bubble and crisis? Or is this only a political operation to placate an angry […]

Of all the convoluted arguments marshaled to support the case for a centralized, national securities commission, none is more shop-worn than pointing to the shining example of the American Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Clearly, it is asserted with a booming voice, modern financial markets require tightly coordinated regulations and enforcement, which only a single, […]

To stifle financial speculation and ban the shenanigans that brought on the devastating stock market crash of 1929, the U.S. Congress enacted a series of measures to save a moribund capitalist system. The Glass-Steagall Act of 1934, in barely 53 pages, mandated a new regulatory framework for banks and other financial institutions in the United […]

This book has won the prestigious Silver prize at New York’s Independent Publisher Awards in the Current Events category IGPPO chairman Yvan Allaire’s latest book Black Markets… and Business Blues: The Man-made Crisis on 2007-2009 and the Road to a New Capitalism, which he co-wrote with Mihaela Firsirotu, holder of the Bombardier UQÀM chair, has […]

THIS TEXT IS ADAPTED FROM THEIR RECENTLY PUBLISHED BOOK BLACK MARKETS AND BUSINESS BLUES. Capitalism, famously wrote Karl Marx, bears the seeds of its own destruction. Yet Marx was blind to capitalism’s ability to renew itself and soar, Phoenix-like. The last time this happened, after its near-death experience in the 1930s, governments had to salvage […]

Yvan Allaire and Mihaela Firsirotu aren’t the kind of people you would expect to find railing against the dangers of modern capitalism and proposing a major overhaul. Mr. Allaire is an emeritus professor of management and former senior executive of Bombardier Inc., while Ms. Firsirotu is a respected professor of business strategy at Université du […]

This book tells a sad tale. This is the tale of how and why the U.S. financial  system and the American  model of corporations, touted as examples for the rest of the world,  have proven fragile and destructive. It is the tale of how, over the last thirty years, financial markets became populated by funds […]

You can now view a video of a presentation given by Dr. Huguette Labelle, the head of Transparency International and Chancellor of the University of Ottawa, on November 5, 2008, at a business luncheon presented in conjunction with the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations Dr. Labelle’s presentation focused on the importance of good corporate governance […]