Why Proxy advisers are losing their power

Annual general meetings (agms) of shareholders used to be dull affairs. A company’s owners would gather to elect board members or, after the global financial crisis of 2007-09 exposed the gulf between fat-cat bosses and their workers, cast (mostly non-binding) votes on executive compensation. In the past few years, though, they have turned into corporate confessionals, with nothing short of a company’s soul at stake. Motions are…