The feet have it

Shareholders may dream of giving underperforming executives a swift kick in the derriere. Fortis holders have come about as close as it gets. Upset at the takeover of the once great Belgian bank by France’s BNP Paribas, they stopped a shareholders’ meeting called to vote on the deal by mobbing the stage, singing the French national anthem and throwing shoes at the speakers. Such projectile behaviour has an obvious cathartic appeal. It’s a sort of anger management – better to throw shoes than pu...