Regret

Bloomberg's Fred Pals reports on Oct. 29 that Rijkman Groenink, the former chief executive officer who earned about $33 million from the sale of ABN Amro Holding NV, said he regrets the takeover and wants to work again for the Dutch lender.

Groenink stated:

• he would really like' to become a supervisory-board member at ABN Amro
  
• "There is no one else in the Netherlands with as much banking experience and specific knowledge of ABN Amro as me,''
• "I'd be more than willing to put my knowledge and experience at the bank and my management experience in the service of the new bank and therefore of the Dutch people.''
• "My reality is one of loathing, sadness, I didn't need the money, I didn't want it. But the reality of public opinion is that I'm a money-grubber and I bargained away the bank.''

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Value for Money!

Now that Obama will be the next (44th) US president, confidence will rise and we'll get value for money......

That leads to the question of how you measure the Purchasing Power of Money?


The measure most often used, is the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

Other comparison series might be preferable, depending on the context of the question.

In fact there are:

Six Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a US Dollar Amount, 1774 - 2007

Calculate the actual value of a original year 1900 Dollar, Euro, Guilder or Pound and see how you get value for money.

Shareholder or Stakeholder model?

Does the corporation exist for the benefit of shareholders, or does it have other, equally important stakeholders, such as employees, customers and suppliers?

In a study titled, "Stakeholder Capitalism, Corporate Governance and Firm Value" (2007), finance professor Franklin Allen (e.a.) tackles this issue. In showing the various benefits of the stakeholder approach, he demonstrates that the issue is not as settled as some researchers and business people in the US or the UK might think.

Several conclusions emerge from the study, which uses a mathematical model to explore the advantages and disadvantages of stakeholder-oriented firms. First, stakeholder-oriented companies have lower output and higher prices, and can have greater firm value than shareholder-oriented firms. Second, firms may voluntarily choose to be stakeholder-oriented because it will increase their value, according to the study.

In a recent study (2008) called, "Rhineland Exit", Dutch (CPB) researchers Bovenberg and Teulings defend the victory of the Shareholder model over the stakeholder model (Rhineland model). They also state that the principle of maximization of shareholder value, being the ultimate goal of the firm, is at odds with the Rhineland philosophy of a balanced treatment of the interests of all stakeholders.

Why arguing so much about share or steak? By choosing the "stakeholdermodel with weights" it's simple to accomodate and optimize the final model to the company goals.

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