Proxy Advisor Ethics?

Although I have tried to hide it, you, careful reader, have probably detected in these pages a slight, almost unnoticable bias against credit rating agencies. I know it’s irrational, and I apologize. It’s not like they wrecked the economy. It's not like they've cleverly used the First Amendment to avoid regulation. Sorry - *ahem*

My point was that my father-in-law bears a similar grudge toward proxy advisors. Whenever the subject comes up, he mutters darkly about “that racket,” (he doesn’t mean noise). So, he'll be happy to hear that Yale’s business school has proposed a code of ethics for proxy advisors. The press release announces "a series of breakthrough steps to boost transparency among institutional investors and the proxy voting services that advise them on relations with corporations."