tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8599274.post6101929956133531741..comments2024-03-20T08:25:38.195-04:00Comments on Chew Your Grouse: Cash Hoarding and Activism 2.0Cleric Mikhailovich de Troihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11074937604933464852noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8599274.post-23475377440985996342010-02-18T08:25:29.921-05:002010-02-18T08:25:29.921-05:00You describe the service that Moxy Vote provides. ...You describe the service that Moxy Vote provides. The site is in beta, though.Steedmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8599274.post-64252988939441555822010-02-15T14:25:24.652-05:002010-02-15T14:25:24.652-05:00The boards are hoarding cash because they are dist...The boards are hoarding cash because they are distracted by their enhancement cream application efforts. But seriously, why on earth would anyone with unfettered access to clueless investor capital (the mutual fund industry) ever seek to radically change their way of doing business? Because of websphere inhabitants disapproval? Puh-leeze!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8599274.post-30865831160800111822010-02-14T13:38:26.221-05:002010-02-14T13:38:26.221-05:00The Grouse has sniffed out an opportunity here! T...The Grouse has sniffed out an opportunity here! That's the good news. The bad news for your entrepreneurial readers is that a handful of web 2.0 shareholder activism sites have sprung up recently. Check out moxyvote.com and proxydemocracy.org. I have not yet studied these sites (gotta get on that), so I can't comment on how likely they are to succeed in boosting shareholder democracy, or whether they even tackle issues like cash hoarding. But I do like the idea of Moxyvote which allows you to let them vote all your shares according to, for example, the Humane Society proxy voting guidelines. Very cool idea.Roggoboggoliehttp://sustainableinvesting.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8599274.post-77438257437286322792010-02-14T13:31:42.606-05:002010-02-14T13:31:42.606-05:00I think cash hoarding is a rational response to th...I think cash hoarding is a rational response to the credit crunch and will be alleviated by renewed confidence. This is the longest recession since the depression. Renewed confidence will be very welcome.<br /><br />In general, though, I like the idea of applying social networking approaches to activist investing. I think it can be focused successfully on public policy / socially important, rather than financially strategic, issues. The financial issues are already the focus of these boards, and I don't think the collective wisdom of the networked blabbermouths will be wiser than the board's. We've all seen those message board blowhards getting things totally wrong, never admitting mistakes, and treating people who actually know what they're doing contemptuously. Many amateur and some professional investors were mad at Alan Greenspan in the late 90s for talking down the tech bubble. An activist investor like Carl Icahn is successful mainly because he accurately perceives what the market believes (about corporate finance issues such as the value of a company's component parts) and he's more willing than the board to do violence to a corporation's inherited structure.Steedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05375691190864554190noreply@blogger.com