The Nation - 30.03.2020

34 The Nation. March 30, 2020

and “Chicago ‘Gang Member’ Streams His

Own Shooting Death.” But after telling

Hoffman’s story, the book does not take us

back to Chicago Lawn. Instead, Transaction

Man peters out with one of those short

How to Solve It All chapters that publishers

love to insist must be tacked onto books

about social problems.

Perhaps the reason for this is that Le-

mann ran out of pages or, possibly, time.

If so, it’s a bad break, because this summer,

as his book went to press, history provided

him the material for another, more interest-

ing conclusion. The Business Roundtable,

an organization founded in 1972 whose

membership consists solely of the chief

executive officers of some 200 of America’s

biggest corporations (including Citigroup,

where Robert Rubin went to work after his

government service), announced that it was

“modernizing its principles on the role of

a corporation.” A press release noted that

since 1997, each of the Roundtable’s period-

ic statements on the principles of corporate

governance had insisted “that corporations

exist principally to serve shareholders.”

That, the Roundtable now claims, “does

not accurately describe the ways in which

we and our fellow CEOs endeavor every

day to create value for all our stakeholders,

whose long-term interests are inseparable.”

This new manifesto pledged the group

to work toward an “economy that allows

each person to succeed through hard work

and creativity and to lead a life of meaning

and dignity.” The bullet points enumerate

the many goals that the signatories are

committed to, such as “delivering value to

our customers,” “investing in our employ-

ees,” “dealing fairly and ethically with our

suppliers,” “supporting the communities in

which we work,” and—last and (we are very

much meant to assume) least—“generating

long-term value for our shareholders.”

Somewhere, Milton Friedman must be

weeping. The Wall Street Journal certainly

is: “These CEOs are fooling themselves

if they think this new rhetoric will buy off

[Elizabeth] Warren and the socialist left,”

its editorialists replied. “It may even em-

bolden them by implying that corporate

rules that require a focus on achieving value

for shareholders are somehow morally in-

sufficient.” Whether the Business Round-

table can be trusted in these representations

is, of course, the most open of questions.

But in the meantime, I can’t imagine a

better way to grasp the immense difficulties

that will be involved in any thoroughgoing

revision of the purpose of corporations than

by reading this book. Q

Immigrant Song

Bitter Mother

Blue, dead, rush of mothers,

conceal your island, little star.

Trains, hands, note on a thread,

Poland’s dish of salt.

They said, The orphanlands

of America

promise you a father—

The ship’s sorrows, broken daughter,

the ocean’s dark, dug out.

Silent Father

Rain, stars, sewage in the spill,

hush the river.

In your black boat, broken snake,

you hid. You sailed

for the meritlands of America,

dumped your name in the black

water—

In the village they pushed the Rabbi

to the wall—someone

blessed the hunter.

Angry Daughter

One says No and the other

says nothing at all—

Chicago, I will live in your museums

where Europe is a picture on the wall.

Obedient Child

I concealed my island,

my little star.

In my black boat I hid.

I hid in pictures on the wall.

I said, I am here in America,

your hero, your confusion,

your disappointment after all.

They said,

How did you end up so bad

in a country this good and tall.

DANA LEVIN