George W. Bush

Candidate response not received.

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John Kerry

Corporate Accountability
How do you propose to make corporate boards of directors more accountable to shareholders?

We must have the fairest, most transparent and efficient financial markets in the world and our public companies must live up to the highest standards of accountability. This is critical to ensuring that the United States remains strong and competitive in the global economy. In recent years, the trust and confidence of the American people in their public companies and their financial markets have been dangerously eroded by the emergence of serious accounting irregularities by some companies and possible fraudulent actions by others. In too many instances, the company's board of directors did not provide appropriate oversight necessary to insure the United States maintains the highest standards of corporate accountability. These actions have put a strain on the growth of our economy, have contributed to an overall decline in stock values and have caused grave losses to both individual investors and many pension funds.

I strongly supported the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 because I believed the corporate governance provisions included in the bill would help restore confidence in our capital markets, increase our economic stability and growth. I am concerned that this Administration is not implementing this law in a way that will protect workers as Congress intended. However, I believe that additional actions are necessary to ensure that corporate boards of directors are accountable to investors. For example, I strongly support the recent U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) action to increase the shareholder voice in executive compensation practices. I also believe that the SEC should allow long-term significant investors to have a voice in the selection of a portion of a company's board of directors. Finally, I believe that the SEC should consider requiring companies to provide greater transparency in the reporting of their executive retirement stock purchase and investment plans in order to determine whether executives receive significantly better compensation and retirement benefit packages than other workers in the same company. These actions will help prevent accounting irregularities and fraudulent actions by businesses in the future while helping companies become more responsive to their investors.

What can be done to address runaway executive compensation, including stock options and retirement benefits?

I am very concerned about runaway executive compensation. Today, the average CEO makes more than 500 times what the average worker makes, and I think that's wrong. While I don't believe our government should place dollar limits on compensation, I do think there are steps we can take to make the system fair. We must curb abuses where they occur, especially such practices as funneling money to offshore accounts or tax shelters that allow executives to avoid paying their fair share of taxes.

I also support expensing stock options, which will curb abuses and provide workers savings for retirement, education and other family priorities with better information to make wise investment decisions. The final FASB standard should provide clear, credible, and comparable information in the capital markets. It should also be fair, accurate and protect the entrepreneurial drive that employee ownership can inspire.