The stockolders have not been served. We've had two major stock collapses in only 8 years. They might be as guilty as the CEO's of looking only at the short term. However, the CEO's are getting 10+ times historical pay for compared to roughly 3 or less for stockholders even for stocks performing phenomonally so I think CEO's are benefitting far more for short term results and thus have a stronger incentive to focus short term. Most investors are advised to have a 10 year outlook while I believe the average CEO tenure is something like 4 years. Even so, I might buy the it's the stockholders fault arguement if I weren't aware of many shareholder groups trying and failing to reign in executive pay.

I'm seeing a common thread here where people are speaking about the theory of how capitalism is supposed to work without taking into account the reality of what's happening. In theory we are supposed to have open and clear accounting and many other systems to prevent a stock market collapse like lead to the great depression. Well guess what folks this stock market collapse has been just as bad. There's a problem with the theory and new ones are needed. This is not yet a great depression but it will be at least the worst recession since then. Change is needed unless you want this to happen again.

Regards,
Mark