[quote=patientrenter]If the only way that you could trust company management of a publicly traded company not to rip you off was sheer trust, then the entire public company route for allocating capital efficiently across the economy would be terribly, and unnecessarily inefficient. [/quote]

I think it’s fairly inefficient. Not horrific, but not particularly efficient. And I think the last 15 years have proven that fact.

[quote=patientrenter]But that doesn’t take Ken Lewis or his board of the hook for very bad choices, and for putting themselves ahead of their shareholders improperly. [/quote]

Agree 100%. Ken Lewis should have been fired and the entire board replaced. Of course that applies to many of the largest financial institutions.