A day after it emerged that Wall Street bonuses rose to twenty billion dollars last year, and that the typical financial-industry grunt received a payment on top of his salary that was more than twice the median household income, the latest corporate executive to run afoul of the Street was called to account. 

Remarkably enough, it was Tim Cook, the head of one of the most successful businesses in American history. At Apple’s annual shareholder meeting, in Cupertino, California, Cook, who took over from Steve Jobs in August, 2011, was pressed about the company’s stock price, which has fallen by about a third since last summer—drawing the ire of Wall Street, particularly David Einhorn, a billionaire hedge-fund manager who owns more than a million Apple shares. “I don’t like it either,” Cooksaid of the stock price.“Neither does the board or management—where the stock trades now versus a few months ago. But we’re focussed on the long term.”

That was precisely the response from Cook that I would have expected, and it was the appropriate one… 

Continue reading John Cassidy on Apple vs. Wall Street: http://nyr.kr/13mg7vi

Photograph, of Tim Cook, by Jim Wilson/The New York Times/Redux. 

(Source: newyorker.com)