Guard the Guardian . . .
SUDDENLY the skies are thick with chairmen shot down from their jobs on golden parachutes. Manning the ack-ack guns are the institutional shareholders, led by the insurance companies. In the good years it was too easy for the pilots to behave as if they owned the aircraft, and to arrange for themselves the rewards of ownership. The true owners meekly sat back and enjoyed the share price. Turbu- lence has reminded them of the duties of ownership — and if, from now on, they insist on approving the pilots' contracts, that too would be a change for the better. Who, though, is going to perform the owners' duties at the institutions them- selves? Who will pick off their erratic pilots? They, too, have been flying into trouble. The Prudential has lost hundreds of millions on its estate agents, General Accident is up to its neck in the bogs of New Zealand, and a group of Italians who look more like olive oil exporters have palmed off four most peculiar insurance companies onto the Guardian Royal Ex- change. Quis custodiet ipsum Custodem?
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