May 7, 2015
I hold shares in a number of companies and have mutual funds. As one commenter stated "I have skin in the game."
I also know how difficult it is for any regular investor to find out what the compensation is for officers and directors and especially for the CEO. Professional investors have access to databases that compile the information from the multitude of sources used to hide this compensation from the average investor. I use the word "hide" deliberately because there is no need for the obfuscation used in filings with the SEC to obscure the total compensation of executives.
Yes, professional investors can easilty find this information, but the idea behinds the various securities acts is one of transparency - providing informaiton to the regular investor(not the professional) so that guy, the little guy, has some idea of what he is investing in. Should I, for instance, have some idea that executive compensation should not exceed the lowest compensation in the company by more than, say, 45 times, I should be able to find that out.
As it stands now, I cannot. I favor this form of regulation.
Karl T. Gruben