I think there are a lot more dumber (dumbmerer-er?) ideas out there than this one, but shareholder value is an incredibly tenacious and destructive dumb idea.
There seems to be a basic logic to making CEOs take their compensation in stock, since they’d presumably have an incentive to run the firm wisely. But they have every incentive to warp the rules to their advantage. If you’re in just the right position you can make out like a bandit, leaving ordinary stockholders and employees screwed.
Golden parachutes need a remote destruct device.
