Recently, there's been lots of coverage on the stock option
backdating scandals that have swept the corporate world and are now resulting in criminal indictments as discussed by WSJ Law Blog and Larry Ribstein's Ideoblog.
He has argued that failed banks should not be bailed out, Lehman's collapse was not a disaster, AIG should be declared bankrupt, that naked short selling is not a problem, that
backdating isn't so bad, insider trading should be legal, many corporate CEOs are underpaid, global solutions are worse than local solutions, Warren Buffett is overrated, Michael Milken is a great American, the collapse of the hedge fund was not a
scandal, hedge funds are over-regulated, education is overrated by the educated, bonuses at successful Wall Street's firms are deserved and possibly undersized, management buyouts are boons to the economy, Enron's management was victimized by an over-zealous prosecution, Sarbanes - Oxley should be repealed, corporate compliance culture is a disaster, shareholder democracy is overrated, hostile takeovers ought to be revived, the market is permanently moving away from public ownership of equity in corporations, private partnerships are on the rise, public ignorance is encouraged and manipulated by governments and corporations, experts overrate expertise, regulatory agencies are controlled by the businesses they supposedly regulate and Wall Street is much more fun than people give it credit for.
Since it emerged earlier this year that the
backdating of stock options was widespread within the high - techology industry, the
scandal has grown larger by the day.
In the wake of recent
scandals related to pretexting and
backdating of stock options, Asbhy Jones of The Wall Street Journal considers the role of the in house counsel at Silicon Valley companies in Silicon Valley's Outsiders: In - House Lawyers?