Apple becomes the first company to hit $3 trillion market value

…Apple, for instance, has spent billions of dollars buying its own stock while also using low-wage workers to assemble its products, working hard to avoid taxes and tariffs, and continually raising the prices on its devices.

“Apple could have gone and used that money to do all sorts of things. Instead, they’re using it to boost their stock price,” said William Lazonick, a professor emeritus of economics at the University of Massachusetts who has been a leading critic of buybacks since the 1980s…