Holy cows

Corporate bosses shouldn’t come away with fabulous wealth when shareholders are left empty-handed. Yet Bob Nardelli leaves Home Depot with $210m even though the stock fell on his watch. Thanks to recent changes in corporate governance, such payments for failure will become less common. But there’s more work to be done if the U. S. is to achieve the highest standards of democratic capitalism. Huge severance packets often take investors by surprise. That’s because it’s difficult to calculate the...