reward for failure at shell: cfo judy boynton, lost her job in april because she failed to take any corrective action when she was informed that shell oil reserves had been overstated to the market by 20% and therefore misrepresented the value of the firm. she receives $1m payoff, plus shares, plus $2.4m pension and has been retained since april as a consultant. 'in accordance with her contract entitlement'. here are the dozy shareholders that allow the directors of the companies they own to award such ridiculous contracts to each other (we should all go get jobs with them); the capital group companies inc (4.45%), legal & general group plc (3.65%), barclays plc (3.31%).

asian tsunami relief aid: a widow's mite. timor have pledged $50k and japan $500m. the table below ranks the generosity of each nation as a % of the donors 'ability to pay' - that is the donation as a % of gross national income 'gni' (atlas method) per person. notice the ability to pay of some who have donated nothing! according to cnn there are over 50 organisations collecting aid for this cause - how much aid will be dissipated in duplicated administration, bureaucracy and co-ordination?

usairways new-year staffing: so usairways ask their non-union staff to work without pay over the new-year holiday! a major corp only gets into chapter 11 through the incompetence of it's board of directors and senior management. are the board also working without pay until they get the firm out of the mess that they led it into? the board refers to it's employees as their 'finest asset'. a finest asset you nurture, maintain, and respect. come on bruce lakefield et al. get with the program.

jarvis shed 300 jobs: in 12 months alan lovell(ceo) & stephen norris(chairman), as servants of the owners(shareholders) of jarvis, have steered this uk construction / support services company from 6,000 employees to 2,700 and reduced the value of their owners investment from 218p to 28p per share by 'bidding too aggressively' for the government contracts awarded by alastair darling, john prescot, charles clarke and david blunkett. jarvis bid at prices so low to ensure they saw off the competition, and so low they could not afford to do the work. not only have alan & stephen destroyed the investment of their shareholders but they have destroyed the livelihood of the 2,300 employees and families that they have laid-off. they have also failed the public - the users of the services that they were contracted to operate (incidentally killing several rail passengers and employees in the process), and they have disrupted the businesses of the firms who could have performed satisfactorily, against whom they bid to get the contracts. thank you alan, thank you stephen, for your wanton corporate social irresponsibility. thank you alastair darling, thank you charles clarke, for inadequate due-diligence of your contractors, for disregarding the welfare of your electorate and for the irresponsible stewardship of tax revenue in awarding pfi contracts to the lowest bidder regardless of their ability to perform. incidentally, stephen norris was also the conservative party candidate for mayor of london in 2000 & 2004 - what chaos would he have caused in london based on his performance at jarvis?