True that the executives are primarily out for number one...

The real scandel is the the Boards of Directors (BOD's) are not pressed more heavily on their fiducicary duty to the stockholders.

Have any of the BOD for Enron or World Com been sent to jail other than those who were also convienently Officer's of the Company? Where was the Board's due dilligence in those cases? Were they really wielding oversight and control of the companie's management? If so, then why wern't they prosecuted for failing to exercise due dilligence? Why do the directors get off scott-free when it is their responsibility to oversee corporate management--Which includes setting the compensation policies for a company's management, audit policies, and other critical factors to the shareholders, employees, and the economy in general?

The Stockholders need to start taking back the companies from the control of piss-poor directors...Unfortunatly, the directors are too often forgotten about when things go bad. How many shareholders even bother to vote on the directors? As a result, many directors are just figureheads or political appointments made so that some politician can be owned (remeber Hillary Clinton was on the board of Tyson Foods--I bet she really looked out for the shareholder's interests--NOT).

We need shareholder empowerment and Director responsibility legislation. But good luck getting that through Congress. The rules need to be re-written so that the Directors of a company have more answerability, but I've never heard anyone address this issue. Sarbane's-Oxley really didn't do much to the Directors, it focused most of it's weight on the Accounting Industry.

Put a few Directors of a company or two in jail and you will start to get their attention...

E-mail your congressman if you really care.