The NY Times has a couple of interesting articles in its Sunday business section. In this one, Times business reporter Ken Gilpin notes that the stock market has moved steadily higher since last summer, even though insider stock sales have far outnumbered purchases. Mr. Gilpin interviews Jonathan Moreland, a money manager and the director of research at InsiderInsights.com, as to the reason for this apparent contradiction.
Another Times article reports on a recent academic study that challenges the popular reason for not worrying about the high price-to-earnings ratio in the stock market today — i.e., the idea that the ratios should be high when interest rates are low. According to the traditional Fed Model, stock earnings growth should be slower when Treasury note rates are high and faster when those rates are low. However, that has not been the case historically, according to the new study, “Inflation Illusion and Stock Prices,” by Harvard finance professors John Y. Campbell and Tuomo Vuolteenaho. According to the study, the stock market has tended to become significantly undervalued in times of high inflation and overvalued in times of low inflation. As a result, the situation in the market today may be the mirror opposite of what prevailed in the late 1970’s — that is, stocks may be as overvalued today as they were undervalued then.

A savvy businessman once told me that there is an inverse relationship between the independence of a board of directors and the level of perks that the board approves for management. This NY Times article details some of the absurd perks that were paid to some of the corporate executives who are defendants in ongoing criminal cases. Not a pretty picture.