Al Kamen reports a pretty interesting tidbit about the Center's director today:

The Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed, in a regulation
entitled "Security Holder Director Nominations," new rules to make
corporate directors more accountable to shareholders through new
nomination procedures.

When the SEC proposes these things, there's always a comment period,
a time for interested folks to opine on the proposal. Sometimes the
responses come from pointy-headed academics not knowledgeable in the
ways of the world.

But one academic, Wendy Gramm, formerly chairwoman of the Commodity
Futures Trading Commission and now the director of the regulatory
studies program at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University,
is well-versed in these issues. And Gramm thinks the new regulation
is a bad idea:

"While some boards of directors have acted contrary to the interests
of shareholders," she wrote in her comments, "the SEC has provided
no quantitative or even qualitative data to support its assertions
that this problem of misalignment [of interests of the board and the
shareholders] is widespread enough to warrant a federal regulation
or that the proposed rule will address the problem."

One can only hope the SEC listens to Gramm, since she is well-versed
in the failure of corporate boards to represent shareholder
interests. She joined the Enron Board of Directors in 1993 -- after
helping draft new CFTC rules that exempted some of Enron's more
creative dealings from regulation. She also served on its famous
audit committee. From 1996 until its demise, Enron donated $50,000
to the Mercatus Center.