A group of high-profile leaders from the business, investment, government, academic, and labor communities have banded together to endorse a call for action to address market short-termism and a focus by companies and investors on long-term performance.
Twenty-eight signatories, including Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett and The Vanguard Group Founder John Bogle, joined the Aspen Institute Business & Society Program's Corporate Values Strategy Group to endorse what's billed as "a bold call to end the focus on value-destroying short-termism in our financial markets and create public policies that reward long-term value creation for investors and the public good."
The statement, "Overcoming Short-termism: A Call for a More Responsible Approach to Investment and Business Management," says short-termism "is not limited to the behavior of a few investors or intermediaries; it is system-wide, with contributions by and interdependency among corporate managers, boards, investment advisers, providers of capital, and government."
"Effective change will result from a comprehensive rather than piecemeal approach," it says.
The recommendations for addressing shareholder short-termism include:
Market incentives: encourage more patient capital through tax policy;
Alignment: better align the interests of financial intermediaries and their ultimate investors; and
Transparency: strengthen investor disclosures.
Other signers include Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz Partner Martin Lipton; Yale School of Management Senior Associate Dean for Corporate Governance Ira Millstein, a senior partner in the firm Weil, Gothsal & Manges; Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher Partner John Olson; and AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka. The full statement and list of signatories is available at www.aspeninstitute.org/policy-work/business-society/corporate-programs/cvsg/public-policy.
The effort builds on the 2007 "Aspen Principles for Long-Term Value Creation."
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