Professor Michael Jensen of Harvard Business School (along with Bill Meckling of Rochester) did some formidable research now almost 40 years ago on the agency-principal problem in modern corporate America.
FORBES: The Difference Between The Mindsets Of Founders And Professional Managers
The presence of greedy family members, hungry for more than their share of earnings and perks from the company, may be worse than the well-studied agency problem of hired managers sucking benefits from the company that should accrue to public shareholders.
FORBES: The Kochs' Crazy Dividend Policy Is Normal For Family-Controlled Firms
Between them, a tougher regulator and an efficient asset-sales agency quickly brought the problem under control.
In September Moody's, a credit-rating agency, estimated that the case-by-case approach had barely made a dent in the problem, with only 1% of adjustable-rate subprime loans recast.
To try to combat the problem, the agency has twice released better-oxygenated water from Kielder Reservoir into the river in an effort to help salmon move out of the estuary and into the freshwater section of the river.
As a federal agency, NASA can't run commercials -- a problem both for rallying broader public support and fostering the next generation of astronauts.
ENGADGET: AIA crowdfunds a space program ad that would run in front of Star Trek (video)
Securitisation created a serious agency problem, leaving loan originators, who were paid up-front, with no incentive to avoid bad credits and every reason to piggyback inappropriate products onto good ones (in one particularly depressing tale, a retired postal worker whose mortgage is almost paid off is switched to an interest-only product that leaves him in danger of losing his home).
The CFPB, a new agency that gained authority over credit-card issues last year, examined the problem over the summer but hadn't previously signaled changes.
The new FDA plan is the latest step in a multi-agency Federal effort to address prescription drug abuse, a major public health problem in the United States.
The problem, he says, is the little-discussed role of the National Security Agency in the project, in partnership with the DHS and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Another group of scientists convened by the International Joint Commission, a U.S.-Canadian agency that deals with boundary waters, is developing recommendations for solving Lake Erie's toxic algae problem.
However, non-greenhouse gas emissions are not a significant problem, as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports emissions of the Six Principal Pollutants have declined to less than a third of 1980 emissions levels.
FORBES: Obama Unites Global Warming Alarmists, Skeptics In Presidential Debates
应用推荐