Bogle on Corporate Governance

The founder of the mutual funds giant the Vanguard Group, John Bogle, has an op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal calling for congressionally imposed "standards" that would "require the giant financial institutions of investment America to behave as owners of corporate America," including, "demanding the independence of directors from management (including the separation of the roles of chief executive and board chairman)." Funny, Mr. Bogle himself served as chairman and chief executive officer of Vanguard from 1974 to 1996, and the company did pretty darned well, thank you. More thoughts on the wisdom of separating these roles are here.