Corporate governance activists will look back on 2004 as a year of improving standards in many countries.

The notable exception could be the US, where the re-election of George Bush as president is an ominous sign for supporters of governance reform. The ousting this month of Sean Harrigan as head of Calpers, the largest pension fund in the US, reinforced the sense that the climate for improved corporate governance had turned chilly even before the second Bush administration begins. One commentator described Harrigan's exit as the end of the post-Enron era of shareholder activism in America and the beginning of a new stage of capitalist chicanery.