Tuesday, January 10th, 2012
Stephan: This is very interesting. The British PM, and the Commons are much more accountable to their voters than American Senators or the President. That is what is driving this very sensible policy.
British Prime Minister David Cameron has vowed to give shareholders the right to veto executives’ pay packages, amid mounting political pressure and public anger over huge salaries and bonuses.
With Britons bracing for a tough year amid a gloomy economic outlook and the politically charged bank bonus season approaching, Cameron took a tough line on sky-high salaries in a Sunday newspaper interview.
He called for the end of the ‘merry-go-round’, where highly-paid bosses sit on each other’s boards and approve pay awards.
‘The market for top people isn’t working, it needs to be sorted out,’ he told The Sunday Telegraph.
‘Let’s empower the shareholders by having a straight, shareholder vote on top paid packages.’
The comments came amid growing political pressure for the government to prove it is serious about tackling so-called ‘fat cat’ pay, with repeated calls from the opposition Labour party leader for action.
Despite repeated controversies over bosses being handed huge payoffs even in cases where companies have failed, currently shareholders can only express their disapproval through an advisory vote.
No details have been agreed on how the new arrangements would work, but they could form part of reforms being worked on by business minister Vince Cable, which would require legislation.
He is due to […]
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Tuesday, January 10th, 2012
, - Agence France-Presse (France)
Stephan: I think this is not for North American or European consumption. It is aimed at Africa and South America, where the Church is growing, and where most of the population knows nothing about the child abuse sex scandal, that has afflicted tens of thousands of children. Personally I can no longer make the leap between the message and the reality, the chasm is too great, so it just sounds overwrought and absurd.
VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI on Monday warned that liberal family values were threatening the future of humanity, in a veiled reference to homosexual marriage and adoptions by gay couples.
‘Policies which undermine the family threaten human dignity and the future of humanity itself,
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Tuesday, January 10th, 2012
PICO IYER, - The New York Times
Stephan: An interesting trend is emerging: the desire to disconnect. I began picking it up last year, here is the latest manifestation of it I have seen.
Pico Iyer is the author, most recently of 'The Man Within My Head.
ABOUT a year ago, I flew to Singapore to join the writer Malcolm Gladwell, the fashion designer Marc Ecko and the graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister in addressing a group of advertising people on ‘Marketing to the Child of Tomorrow.
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Tuesday, January 10th, 2012
BRIAN WHEELER, - BBC News (U.K.)
Stephan:
For the first time in memory, unmarried Americans will soon outnumber those who are married, according to the latest research. So is this a watershed moment?
At first glance it would appear that, in common with many Western countries, marriage is in terminal decline in the United States.
In 1960, 72% of all American adults were married; in 2010 just 51% were, according to the Pew Centre. The number dropped sharply by 5% in the most recent year, 2009-10.
‘I think we are on the cusp of seeing marriage becoming less central to our life course and in framing the lives of our nation’s children. So I think it is a major moment in that regard,’ says Bradford Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project and a sociology professor at the University of Virginia.
Americans are certainly waiting longer before they tie the knot – the average age for a first marriage is at an all-time high of 26.5 years for women and 28.7 for men – or else opting to cohabit, live alone or not re-marry when they get divorced.
In the UK, women are, on average, waiting until the age of 30 before getting married, while the average age of a UK bridegroom […]
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Monday, January 9th, 2012
Stephan: It may surprise you that while I deplore the power of money in our politics, I do not object to what James Bopp and his firm are doing. He has become expert at something that is legal. It is a citizen's right to do that. What is appalling is Congress' pusillanimous failure not to correct this. The response to Mr. Bopp is legislative.
Wedged up against the Illinois border on the banks of the Wabash River, Terre Haute, Indiana, has seen better days. Many factories have closed, and downtown has too many vacant storefronts. But there are signs of activity: Indiana State University has grown, the federal prison still provides reliable jobs-and the ten-lawyer litigation machine that occupies the offices of attorney James Bopp Jr. at the corner of 6th and Wabash is going full tilt.
Bopp is best known as the lawyer behind a case involving a 90-minute film made in 2008 attacking then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Bopp’s suit ultimately resulted in the landmark 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, in which the Supreme Court held that corporate funding of independent political broadcasts such as the movie and its promotional ads were legitimate expressions of free speech and couldn’t be limited by campaign-finance laws. The ruling overturned key restrictions on the use of corporate and union money in politics.
Bopp is already well into the next phase of his crusade to topple as many of the state and federal limits on the role of money in politics as can be done in one man’s lifetime.
Over the past 30 years, Bopp […]
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