Shareholders vs. stakeholders, and the purpose of a corporation

Today we’re checking in on what happened after almost 200 high profile CEOs signed a statement in 2019 promising to serve stakeholders like employees and consumers along with their shareholders.

Have those companies made any progress toward fulfilling those nonbinding pledges?

That’s the question Molly Kinder, a fellow at the Metropolitan Policy program at The Brookings Institution, and her co-authors wanted to answer by analyzing the decisions some of those companies made during the first two years of the pandemic.

On the show today, Kinder explains why the Business Roundtable statement made such a splash in 2019, why workers haven’t seen substantial gains since then, and how it’s connected to the latest wave of strikes.

Then, we’ll get into what schools run by the Defense Department can teach us about improving public education across the country. And some Federal Reserve officials think it’s time to cool it with the rate hikes.

Later, we look at the part of the crypto world that’s often overshadowed by grifters and a story of self-checkout woes. Plus, Charlie Sprinkman, founder of Everywhere Is Queer, answers the Make Me Smart question.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

“Profits and the pandemic: As shareholder wealth soared, workers were left behind” from The Brookings Institution

“Researchers say America’s top CEOs didn’t live up to their promises in Business Roundtable letter” from Fortune

“Workers are striking across America for higher wages” from The Washington Post

“Who Runs the Best U.S. Schools? It May Be the Defense Department.” from The New York Times

Veteran Homelessness Fact Sheet from VA Homeless Programs

“Fed’s Bostic Says Rates Now High Enough to Lower Inflation to 2%” from Bloomberg

We want to hear your answer to the Make Me Smart question. You can reach us at [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.