How ‘Shareholder Value’ Became a US Mantra: Adrian Wooldridge

Michael Jensen, who died on April 2, did as much as any single thinker to shape modern financial capitalism, particularly as it is practiced in the Anglo-Saxon world. To his critics, he was the high priest of the greed-is-good era who justified exorbitant executive pay and vulture capitalism: Gordon Gekko with a doctorate. To his admirers, he was the surgeon who gave Anglo-Saxon capitalism a new lease of life by slicing off the fat, removing the malignant tumors and prescribing a strict exercise regime.

Nobody can deny his extraordinary influence. His elective at Harvard Business School was the most popular in ...