The FT has an editorial today that recommends that Irish firms look overseas in order to obtain a more diverse pool of non-executive directors. My impression is that the practice so far has been to primarily recruit non-execs from the US and the UK. A broader geographical range might contribute more to diversity, rather than focusing on countries with very similar approaches to corporate governance.
Month: March 2009
Axel Weber made an interesting speech last night. He recognises that European fiscal assistance to a member state may be possible, but only under extreme conditions. Moreover, in order to comply with the ‘no bailout’ clause, any loan would have to be conditional (he does not specify the list of conditions).
Key part of the speech:
“It should be emphasised that the “no-bail-out” rule, as stipulated in the EC Treaty, is an indispensable instrument for preventing moral hazard behaviour by the member states. With that in mind, issuing blank cheques would definitely be the wrong course of action.
Yet, EMU is our common destiny. If any kind of help for a member state were necessary in the improbable case of an extreme emergency, the clear conditionality of such support would be essential in order to comply with the Treaty.”
Click here to listen to the Bloomberg interview with Patrick Honohan.
Congratulations to Kevin on his election to the Royal Irish Academy: the full list of new members is available here. (Fellow economist Amartya Sen was elected as an honorary member.)
Last week saw the release of a major study (by a group of political scientists and economists, including this blog’s Kevin O’Rourke) of the factors that explain voting decisions in the Lisbon Treaty Referendum: you can read it here. No doubt these factors will be closely studied in deciding strategies for the upcoming 2009 vote on the ‘modified’ Lisbon referendum.