Reform, the American Way

Who said that capitalism’s reform isn’t moving forward? Whether it is the subject of executive pay, of the supervision of artificial financial products or the fight against tax havens, the pressure from investors, government action, as well as some initiatives stemming from businesses themselves, are shaking things up.

All the better. But without a doubt it is necessary to go further. The SEC, the authority of American guardianship, has just made a proposal to strengthen the stockholders’ power and their representation in the businesses’ board of directors. This initiative, in the shape of a return to the fundamentals of capitalism, is welcome. The recorded excess of these last few years would not have reached such proportions if the “shareholder democracy” had functioned properly. Yet that’s far from the case. The SEC wonders, in a document published Wednesday, if the board of directors duly exercised its power over the executives and especially if they duly defended the interests of the stockholders. One can imagine that the response is rather negative and the new rules are necessary.

This isn’t the only area where one says to Washington that what was lacking during the recent period were the rules allowing capitalism to function more effectively. The Obama administration has broken with the extreme ideology of its predecessor where, in theory, fewer regulations always reinforce the effectiveness of the system in the long term. This theory no longer works. The recent initiatives from the White House on speculative funds or credit cards demonstrate that.

Alas, step by step, the United States moves to repair a system that it knows is fixable…just seeming to be ahead of Europe, who would like to think of itself as a leader. For example, that’s why it’s concerned with derivative products, considered to be the vector of the crisis. While Brussels prepares a report on the subject, Washington is already moving on its proposals to supervise this gigantic market of close to 700 billion dollars.

Rather than asking never ending questions on capitalism’s future, the Americans by their strength, are moving forward with pragmatism in the sense of reform. They are in the middle of putting new financial regulations in place that they well know will eventually be converted into world standards. There exists an “American way” in the reform of capitalism. The European way is somewhat more circuitous.