The reign of the shareholders has just begun

With the crisis, would see what was going to see. Over the dictatorship of the shareholders! A niche, the watchdogs of the triumphant capitalism which took the lion's share of! Employees would take their revenge after three decades of crash. The CEO were finally able to invest in the future of the company, once the pitbulls of the "shareholder value" anesthetized by the stock market crash. Policies would reduce ugly capital holders memory portion that should have always been their. This strange hope of economy finally released from the yoke of the owners, it was heard on trade unions, of course. But also typically more moderate premises, such as business schools, Palace of the Republic or even the circles for usually lumping patterns.

Boom! Once again, nothing has happened as planned. Employees have all taken their revenge. They will be hundreds of thousands to lose their jobs in France, tens of millions across the globe. Those who have the chance to keep their positions are not close to see the color of an increase. CEOs are not of all invested more. Taken a horrifying maelstrom, many of them have even reduced half equipment. If one of them had the whimsical idea of wanting to launch despite a new project, it does not find money. And opposite, with the capital, is the Berezina. If the profits of the CAC 40 were unscrewed 40 last year, its shareholders received dividends amputation of only 13.

Let's be honest, the holders of shares was rinse as ever since three quarters of a century. Despite the beautiful spring rally, the CAC 40 shares worth 30 less than a year ago. The fall approach even 50 since mid-2007 summits. But owners have lost none of their power (except, of course, in the small minority of businesses that have failed). The projects born out of the crisis will instead strengthen their power in many countries or better align the interests of the leaders on their. In the US, they will eventually have their word to say about the salaries of leaders the famous "say on pay". In Germany, the time limit for the exercise of stock options is two to four years. And tutti quanti.

Beautiful debates on issues of governance lead all on the same conclusion: it must strengthen the power of the shareholders. Even to sort between vile speculators, entering and leaving the capital as a grist mill, and noble investors in the long term, accompanying the company over the ages and storms. These could be encouraged to see further with accounting and prudential rules different.

But whatever its horizon, the shareholder seeks to maximize its performance. When it invests in the long-term, it is perhaps less bounded but not less greedy. This pressure is going to last. That, behind the institutional shareholders such as pension funds or the managers of mutual funds, there are in the world of the tens of millions of current and future retirees to hear well preserve revenues seriously amputees by the financial crash of 2008. The reign of the shareholders has just begun.

Unless... it suddenly discovers that they are not the owners. It was the sense of a book written five years ago by economists Michel Aglietta and Antoine Rebérioux (1). They recall that the Corporation is not a proprietorship to multiple owners, but a legal person with legal capacity. "As the owners of the shares, shareholders are entitled to the payment of a dividend." So, they have a particular interest, along with other special interests, to the share of the added value produced by the company. But this Division stems from the collective interest developed in the business. "At the time, these ideas were heretical. Today, very different lawyers from each of the others are thinking. Tomorrow, in an information society where the company will initially be a community of talents, this disconnect between shareholders and property may become obvious.