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It may be a spurious correlation, but the world economy seemed to hum along a lot better in the days when we didn't focus so much on governance and ethics ... just sayin'!

All kidding aside, as long as insiders can tap the debt markets to raise capital that can then be used to buy back shares, shareholders will essentially be numbed to the pain that results from their reluctance or laziness to watch closely over the companies in which they have invested. The box ticking is little more than a feel-good exercise in many cases; a savvy CEO can plunder away all the while ticking all the right governance boxes even as he or she continues to take on unsustainable debt to boost "shareholder value" by doing buybacks.

Let's start reform by banning share buybacks!