The author, in her capacity as a professor of law, explains that the idea that directors of corporations are bound by law to do anything in their power to increase stock price, is wrong, even though it has floated around in the press and academia for a while now.

Not only is it legally speaking wrong, she tells us, but also ineffective, and even damaging in many ways, towards even the shareholders themselves.

The book proposes that directors should be left to their own machinations, because that will lead corporations to make more responsible decisions, both for themselves but also for various stakeholders, the environment, etc. The author proposes that one important reason that corporations externalize costs is the perceived pressure that directors feel from the shareholders to increase stock price, and that giving them more autonomy will solve that.

I disagree with the author that the solution to corporations misbehaving is to give the few people managing them a free hand to do whatever they want, but I think that doesn't negate the author's main and important thesis: that not only is this legal obligation to raise stock price false, it is also damaging.

The book is also short and easy-ish to read, even for someone who is familiar with these matters only broadly.