By Chris Isidore “It sure wouldn’t have hurt. Sears’ ability to stay in business is in doubt after the company filed for bankruptcy protection this month. Yet Sears spent $6 billion buying back its own shares since 2005 in a futile effort to help…
AIR IMPACT
Recognition of AIR research, opinions, and people in the media and elsewhere
Why Wages Are Stagnating in Latin America
By Juan M. Grana “In July 2018, Professor William Lazonick came to Argentina and gave a lecture called “The Investment Triad: Productive Capabilities and Sustainable Prosperity” based on INET’s paper “Profits Without Prosperity: How Stock Buybacks Manipulate the Market, and…
UnitedHealth ramps up stock buybacks, hitting $3.2b. in the first half of 2018
By Evan Sweeney “UnitedHealth Group saw its profits soar in the first half of 2018, and the company is rewarding investors handsomely. The country’s largest insurer spent just shy of $3.2 billion in stock repurchases during the first half of…
Apple should spend money on innovation, not buybacks
By Eric Reguly “Steve Jobs died seven years ago and if he could look down from the sky, he would not recognize Apple Inc., the company he made, and become the most successful gadgetmaker in the history of gadgets. It’s…
Under President Trump, workers continue to struggle
By David Madland, Olugbenga Ajilore, Michael Madowitz, and Daniella Zessoules “Positive measures of unemployment and gross domestic product (GDP), such as those repeatedly touted by the Trump administration,1 show the kind of strong economy that ordinarily leads voters to reward incumbents…
Experts voice concern that windfall from tax cuts benefits the wealthy
By Edward Helmore “US stock markets keep hitting record highs – as anyone who follows Donald Trump’s Twitter account can’t help but notice. And “more good news is coming” for those who have “made a fortune” in US stocks, the…
Before Big Pharma kills us, maybe public pharma can save us
By Dana Brown “Drug-resistant “superbugs” are predicted to kill more people per year than cancer by 2050. Already, more than two million Americans annually are infected with bacteria that have evolved to resist antibiotics with at least 23,000 dying as a result. Given…
Will the US stock market boom continue?
By Natalie Sherman “America’s benchmark stock index, the S&P 500, hit a major milestone this week, marking nearly nine and a half years of gains and closing at a new high. By many counts, it was the longest period without a…
Elizabeth Warren proposes a second New Deal
By Harold Meyerson “When Bernie Sanders offered up his definition of socialism in a speech at Georgetown University in 2015, he basically equated it with the governmental programs created by the New Deal. Sanders cited Social Security, and New Dealer…
Corporate debt is a ticking time bomb
By Jeff Spross “America’s economic expansion is now old enough that people are wondering what will cause the next bust. There are no obvious culprits. But one suspect skulking in the shadows arguably deserves more attention than it’s getting: the…
