In economics, Gresham's Law is the phenomenon of "bad money driving good money out of circulation in the market." Wishing to avoid invoking said Law as it relates to news following yesterday's parade of dark headlines, here is that promised good cheer from Chicago.

At least it starts out sounding good. Based on its monthly CEO Turnover Report, Chicago-based recruiters Challenger Gray & Christmas find that 8.3% fewer chief executives left their posts in 2007 (1,356) than the record number of departees (1,478) in 2006.

Of 369 resignations last year, 40 involved individuals fired for everything from incompetence to personal conduct. 333 retired, 277 left to become directors, and 123 left to join new companies.

134 exits came from the financial services sector; only 5 were subprime related.

Good news? The search firm's CEO John Challenger puts things in perspective--CEOS are getting off easy:

"The lack of turnover resulting from the credit crisis reveals how sheltered they (CEOs) remain." Wary of 2008, he foresees possible "heavy, if not record CEO departures" if that recession worsens (I mean hits).

Concerning succession planning, Heirs Not Apparent discusses how "breakdowns in CEO succession planning at Citigroup and Merrill reflect an over-reliance on chief execs to pick the next leaders."

Optimism is scarce in the article, which has succession planning “doomed to failure” because it tries to “achieve certainty in a future that is anything but predictable” and even likened to “playing with people’s mortality.”

At the bitter end, however, some encouragement in a proposed alternative: “So, instead of succession planning, we need a more flexible, broader process that develops candidates more generally for leadership positions.”

Is that good news?

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