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We have a serious problem with corporate governance in this country. To be clear, it should NOT BE POSSIBLE to hollow out and destroy a company in this way and

We have a serious problem with corporate governance in this country. To be clear, it should NOT BE POSSIBLE to hollow out and destroy a company in this way and be rewarded for it by wall street. We keep blaming the bad actors, but the truth is, the regulators are at fault: It should be impossible to profit in this way. Changes to corporate governance rules would leave this still possible for private companies, but public companies would be judged differently and to a higher standard. Anyone here a public policy wonk who can explain how to change this?

g-b-r 2y ago
> Anyone here a public policy wonk who can explain how to change this? Stop considering the bad actors legal persons that can buy off the regulators
jfengel 2y ago
Yeah. You start by not electing a political party who hates government in general and regulators in particular. Their opponents aren't always great shakes but it's no surprise that government functions badly when it's so often under the control of people whose existence is devoted to making it work badly. Maybe they could make a case for making it work better, but for decades they've said over and over that the only thing they want is to drown it in a bathtub. I apologize for being political but surely people can see a connection between regulatory failure and management by an explicit hatred of all regulators. Not precisely a policy wonk but I live surrounded by them.
- doublepg23 2y ago
  If the aerospace industry doesn’t have enough regulation for you I’m puzzled to think of one that does.
  - jaybrendansmith 2y ago
    DIFFERENT regulations, not more. Everything need optimization, and you cannot predict what won't work until you see it in practice for a while.
- dotnet00 2y ago
  It's funny to say that, when propping up Boeing is a bipartisan thing. They're both willing to move Heaven and Earth to give taxpayer money to Boeing, regardless of performance.
zaphar 2y ago
You fix this by letting Boeing fail. They keep going because our government keeps bailing them out. We deem them too important to fail so we keep holding their corpse up Weekend at Bernies style and hope the voodoo music doesn't cut out. Fix the regulatory regime but also streamline it so other companies can begin to compete. We'll be without a domestic Airliner manufacturer for a bit but I don't think you fix this without eating that pain for a while.
- renegade-otter 2y ago
  Boeing is failing because the government let it "self-regulate". This is directly related to the MAX tragedies. The assumption that a company will do the worst possible thing as a "citizen" should always be the starting point. Air travel did not become one of the safest ways of transport out of the pure, intrinsic will of the industry to be better. it took decades of beating them into doing what's right. Why don't we still have video recordings of cockpits for the Black Box? It would dramatically help in solving accidents, but the industry has been fighting this tooth and nail. "It's expensive!". "Safety" never comes up - that's the government's job.
  - zaphar 2y ago
    Boeing is failing because it's a private company with no market consequences for doing badly and no domestic competition. Those are not caused by self-regulation they are caused by bad economic policy. Regulation is a part of the story but the rot at Boeing started long before the self-regulation did. Their quality and ability to compete at a profit has been dropping for longer than the regulatory issues.

g-b-r 2y ago

> Anyone here a public policy wonk who can explain how to change this? Stop considering the bad actors legal persons that can buy off the regulators

jfengel 2y ago

Yeah. You start by not electing a political party who hates government in general and regulators in particular. Their opponents aren't always great shakes but it's no surprise that government functions badly when it's so often under the control of people whose existence is devoted to making it work badly. Maybe they could make a case for making it work better, but for decades they've said over and over that the only thing they want is to drown it in a bathtub. I apologize for being political but surely people can see a connection between regulatory failure and management by an explicit hatred of all regulators. Not precisely a policy wonk but I live surrounded by them.

doublepg23 2y ago
If the aerospace industry doesn’t have enough regulation for you I’m puzzled to think of one that does.
- jaybrendansmith 2y ago
  DIFFERENT regulations, not more. Everything need optimization, and you cannot predict what won't work until you see it in practice for a while.
dotnet00 2y ago
It's funny to say that, when propping up Boeing is a bipartisan thing. They're both willing to move Heaven and Earth to give taxpayer money to Boeing, regardless of performance.

zaphar 2y ago

You fix this by letting Boeing fail. They keep going because our government keeps bailing them out. We deem them too important to fail so we keep holding their corpse up Weekend at Bernies style and hope the voodoo music doesn't cut out. Fix the regulatory regime but also streamline it so other companies can begin to compete. We'll be without a domestic Airliner manufacturer for a bit but I don't think you fix this without eating that pain for a while.

renegade-otter 2y ago
Boeing is failing because the government let it "self-regulate". This is directly related to the MAX tragedies. The assumption that a company will do the worst possible thing as a "citizen" should always be the starting point. Air travel did not become one of the safest ways of transport out of the pure, intrinsic will of the industry to be better. it took decades of beating them into doing what's right. Why don't we still have video recordings of cockpits for the Black Box? It would dramatically help in solving accidents, but the industry has been fighting this tooth and nail. "It's expensive!". "Safety" never comes up - that's the government's job.
- zaphar 2y ago
  Boeing is failing because it's a private company with no market consequences for doing badly and no domestic competition. Those are not caused by self-regulation they are caused by bad economic policy. Regulation is a part of the story but the rot at Boeing started long before the self-regulation did. Their quality and ability to compete at a profit has been dropping for longer than the regulatory issues.