Today CNBC's NetNet ran a great piece by their Senior Editor John Carney (http://www.cnbc.com/id/44599404/comid/1/cache/238#comments_top) about a fund manager's idea that the government should "license" board directors. John classifies this as "The Worst Idea of the Week" and I agree. I wrote a comment to his piece as follows:

There is no need for the government to "license" board members whatsoever. There already exists several Director Education groups within the country.

What really needs to happen is for more asset and mutual fund managers to take a greater interest in corporate governance, not only as an investment risk, but also as a force multiplier for alpha. If the largest holders of shareholder value behaved more like Bill Ackman, the Pershing Square Hedge Fund Manager, everyones equity investment boat would rise. And we also wouldn't have the need for Sarbanes-Oxley or Dodd-Frank.

This country is awash in MBA's and CFA's who wouldn't buy a car before looking at the car-fax, but would invest other peoples' money in the next Enron. They wouldn't hire a Jr. book-keeper without a background check, but couldn't care less about the corporate character of a firm added to the S&P 500 index. This idiocy and willful ignorance has to stop.

And this is why their should be some form of fiduciary standard enforced upon these firms - the largest holders of shareholder equity in America.

Great WSJ Interview with John Bogle

Jason Zweig, The Intelligent Investor writer for The Wall Street Journal, had a marvelous interview with a man I consider a genuine American Hero - John Bogle, founder of the Vanguard Mutual Fund Family of Funds (see it here; http://online.wsj.com/video/jack-bogle-why-mark-cuban-is-wrong-on-investing/A12A870B-7B21-42F5-BCA6-69329DDF5CA0.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_mpvidcar_2). Likewise Mr. Zweig follows up his interview with an equally as good column(http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904103404576560913892680574.html) offering the reader additional insight and anecdotes.

Everyone out there who considers themselves a long-term investor should take advantage of this interview and column and steady themselves against what you see and hear about our financial markets. More and more our markets appear to be taken over by investment ghouls whose sole purpose is to diminish the value of investing and replace that disciplined approach with the instant gratification of "flash-trading". To me it's as if the rules of our roads were taken away and the Indy, Formula 1 and NASCAR drivers were driving with us on our own streets and highways, imagine that if you will? You and I simply wish to get from Point A to Point B, but these other drivers are allowed to drive among us at speeds that can approach 275mph! Their goal is to simply get there faster than you and in the process, maybe damage that car (mutual fund) of yours or even total it (an individual stock holder).

The SEC and CII should really be investigating all of these "dark-pools", HFT's, and ETF caused market swings. To my mind, these are what the front-runners were of the 1920's. Our long-term interests are being gamed and men like John Bogle are calling out the industry to do something about it.