Links of the Day

The news events of the past couple of days have definitely had an impact on the energy level here, and definitely not in the upward direction. Additionally, as I learn more, the facts, figures and grey areas of Bankruptcy “reform” seem to get more difficult instead of easier to navigate, so the comprehensive takedown is STILL in progress after all this time (ugh).

So, for now, I’ll provide quick links to a number of interesting developments and call it a day here:

- The Wall Street Journal (link requires paid subscription) reports that unscrupulous software vendors are selling source code for creating viruses. It’s legal, and law enforcement says it is powerless to stop it. Great, now anyone can send viruses. Beef up that firewall now (for those without WSJ, Google “virus writing information” and you’ll get the general idea).

- USA Today does a piece on outrageous executive pay, and it’s more outrageous than ever. What is especially maddening is the disconnect between pay and performance; all too often CEOs get paid whether they perform or not, and if they don’t perform they get paid outrageous sums to go away. The difference between how shareholder governance is supposed to work and how it does work is truly the Achilles heel of capitalism. (April 11 update: The WSJ’s CEO Comp Survey Special Section, not linked since it requires a paid subscription, claims that there is a “nascent trend’ of companies getting serious about pay for performance and low pay for non-performance. We’ll be watching for beyond-nascence evidence, which would be welcome.)

- VOIP “leader” Vonage is catching well-deserved fury for not automatically including some form of 911 calling capability. Customers essentially had to “opt in” to get 911 service (it’s not clear whether there is a charge for this). This is unfortunately another example of companies being forced to do what anyone ethical would have done without hesitation in the first place.