Preview of Coming Attractions, and a Movie Review
Preview of Coming (Regulatory) Attractions
The past few weeks have been fairly slow in terms of new developments in securities law, corporate governance and executive compensation. However, summer's over, and I'm expecting a flurry in the next few weeks. Take a look back at the ON Securities Cheat Sheet - a lot of these developments are likely to change as we head into the fall:
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Congress is back in session, and we are likely to see action on the Corporate and Financial Institution Compensation Fairness Act of 2009, passed by the House in July. Congress will likely try to reconcile that bill with the other legislation described in the Cheat Sheet, and I would expect that something will be enacted by the end of the year. Virtually every bill would require Say-on-Pay for public companies, but we don't know when the requirement will go into effect.
Comment periods are ending for the SEC's proposed proxy disclosure and solicitation rules and the proposed shareholder access rules. The SEC will almost certainly adopt the disclosure and solicitation rules this fall. As described in this post, action on the shareholder access rules is more uncertain.
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The SEC and Treasury Department may further clarify compensation standards for financial institutions that received TARP funds - including the SEC's proposed rules to clarify Say-on-Pay standards for TARP recipients (maybe a preview of what Say-on-Pay will look like for other public companies).
Companies preparing their proxy statements for annual meetings held starting on January 1, 2010 will be dealing with the reality of the elimination of broker discretionary voting, described in this post.
We'll be watching carefully - as Siskel and Ebert used to say, "The Balcony Is Open".
Mastering the Art of American Blogging - and Begging
Last weekend I saw my all-time favorite film about blogging - okay, maybe the only film I have seen about blogging. "Julie & Julia" follows two parallel true stories - Julia Child's authorship of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", and Julie Powell's creation of a blog that chronicles her quest to prepare all 524 recipes in the Julia Child book in one year.
I agree with the critics who said that the Julia Child story is much more compelling, and Meryl Streep is wonderful as Julia. But I watched Julie's story with my "blogger hat" on, and I tried to figure out what made her blog successful. Aside from a good concept and great writing, she found a way to create a community among readers with a common interest, and she fed off their support and feedback.
Which leads me to the begging - I am gratified by the number of subscribers to the ON Securities blog, but I'd like to hear from you a little more often. I know it's not always easy - as expressed in an e-mail I received from one subscriber who provided a great comment but then said:
I need a trip to the Wizard of Oz before summoning up enough courage to post a response.
I've paraphrased his/her comment anonymously in the "Comments" section of my last post.
So my request is that you not hesitate to give me feedback - let me know when I'm right or wrong or off base, or if there's any information you would like me to provide in this space. My promise: reading my blog won't leave you as hungry as watching "Julie & Julia" or reading Julie's blog.
