Fwiw, I thought Montier to be a well-respected behavioral economist where behavioral is in reaction to the failure of previous economic models in 2008 (the Glob

Fwiw, I thought Montier to be a well-respected behavioral economist where behavioral is in reaction to the failure of previous economic models in 2008 (the Global Financial Crisis). Behavioral puts human psychology back into the picture. Montier argues that SVM (shareholder value maximization) is the fig leaf that covers the change in incentivization of CEOs, and one assumes other corporate officers, away from salary and bonus to stock options. Which has been key in bifurcating the 1% away from everyone else. Or as they say in finance, when a CEO says shareholder maximization, he or she is talking their own book. They're the shareholder they want to maximize. SVM reframes the dialog in terms of what many people consider legitimate - return money to shareholders - and away from, say, value to employees or to society more generally. Which puts me in mind of another expression, "job creators."