H arvey Goldschmid cannot hide his disappointment that his pet project was never completed at the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mr Goldschmid, who resigned as one of the chief US financial regulator's five commissioners on Sunday, believes the single most important step to improving corporate governance in the US would be to give shareholders more powers to nominate directors at troubled companies.

Alas, he could not persuade William Donaldson, former chairman of the SEC, to push through the controversial reform before he stepped down on June 30.