26 August 2010  Proxy Rule Strenghtens Rights Of Big
Shareholders  The SEC has released new proxy rules for publicly
held companies.  The Proxy Rule Status Quo  Every year, every
publicly held company sends out a proxy statement which is a
Soviet style ballot to appoint or reappoint the members of its
Board of Directors, who are nominated one person for each
position, by a committee of the Board of Directors, a process
that is generally controlled, directly or indirectly, by the CEO
and other members of the senior management team.  The status
quo, which has been criticized in academic circles for decades,
has the effect of making almost all boards of publicly held
companies self-perpetuating except in cases where a hostile
third part acquires a majority of the company in takeover bid. A
handful of proxy proposals are brought by shareholders under a
highly cumbersome process each year, but they almost always
fail.  The "Wall Street Rule" that has followed from this
reality is that if you don't like how a compa