Corporations

The reversal last year of the long trend of rising executive pay came about in part because of growing activism by institutional investors, experts say. But even if you're a small-time investor, you can make your voice heard regarding how the companies you own shares in are run. And with the help of others like you, your portfolio can benefit, corporate governance activists say.

Does your job guarantee you a pension for your retirement? Mine doesn't, and if you're like most private-sector workers, your pension plan is either crumbling around you or has been replaced with a 401(k) program, which may or may not receive a helping hand from your employer. Yet many if not most chief executives continue to enjoy lavish pension plans -- on top of their multimillion-dollar pay packages and sundry other perks. How can that be fair? The short answer, of course, is that it isn't.

When new compensation disclosure rules were first implemented last year, they shone a much brighter light on the perks bestowed upon chief executives, such as country club memberships, rides on the corporate jet, home security systems and rich pensions unavailable to the rank and file. An outcry ensued. After all, some shareholders asked, why does a company need to pay country club dues for someone who already makes $10 million a year? Ditto for car allowances and healthcare deductibles.

Most thefts of sensitive information from corporations occur when the victimized companies don't know what data they have, where they have it or who has access to it, according to a study released Wednesday by Verizon Communications Inc. In about two-thirds of the 500 data thefts investigated by Verizon's security unit over the last several years, the targets didn't know what information they were storing or where exactly they were storing it.

The Justice Department has agreed to back off hardball tactics to force corporations to turn over confidential communications between their attorneys and company executives under scrutiny by prosecutors. The new rules, outlined Wednesday in a Justice Department letter to the Senate, further ease tough steps taken after the Enron-era scandals to root out white-collar crime.

The same historically high oil prices that are expected to contribute to massive profits for the major oil companies in the second quarter are again dragging down financial results in their refining operations. And for companies whose primary business is refining oil and selling gasoline, quarterly earnings versus a year earlier could be ugly. Plummeting stock prices for many refiners reflect the difficult operating environment.

The Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday that it was prepared to offer settlements to some 45 corporations if they agreed to end questionable tax shelter practices. IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said the agency aims to end transactions that have allowed corporations, including many of the nation's top banks, to gain billions in tax deferrals. He did not name the corporations.

One of the stickier issues to come up in the wrangling over how to bail out the imploding financial system is the question of how much money top executives at investment banks and other publicly traded companies are paid. This is not an idle question. Chief executives at these firms are often paid tens of millions of dollars per year -- so much that their compensation can actually cut into the company's earnings.

The roiling economy appears to be ripping into the ranks of upper management, pushing the chief executive turnover rate in a popular survey to an all-time high. This year, 1,132 CEOs have left their posts, according to employment consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. That is the highest nine-month total since the firm began keeping track in 1999, and makes it likely that 2008 will eclipse the record 1,478 seen in 2006.

China's powerful economic machine is losing steam, raising significant concerns for many businesses that are counting on the Asian nation to help them ride out the global financial crisis. The Chinese government said Monday that economic growth in the third quarter slowed sharply from a year earlier to 9%, the lowest level in more than five years. China's economy expanded by 11.9% in all of 2007. But weakening demand for Chinese factory goods from U.S.