By Lester Gunnion “Recent years have seen corporations accumulate unprecedented profits and cash reserves. Corporate managers have increasingly used this cash to buy back their own shares. This has attracted the attention of researchers concerned about the perceived focus of management…
AIR IMPACT
Recognition of AIR research, opinions, and people in the media and elsewhere
Tax cuts—middle class boost or ‘fake math’?
By Hedrick Smith “With Republicans surfacing more details of their tax-cut package and debate sharpening over its likely impact, Trump’s top economist forecasts a boost of $4,000 in annual income for the typical American family but most economists don’t buy…
Ralph Nader steamed as buybacks pick up steam
By Robert Stead “Earlier this month, former presidential candidate and famed consumer advocate Ralph Nader took aim at the $7 trillion of corporate stock buybacks since 2003, declaring the phenomenon a “monster of economic waste.” Mr. Nader notes that prior to the enactment of Rule…
We get sick, they get rich
By Sam Pizzigati “Our current health care system in the United States works just fine — for the corporate executives who run it. Take, for instance, Michael Mussallem, the CEO at Edwards Lifesciences — a California-based company that makes heart…
Farmaci e soldi: le versione di William
By Michele Bocci “Pochi investiementi in ricerca e sviluppo e troppe operazioni finanziarie: emblematico il frequente ricorso al buyback, che consiste nell’acquisto a fini speculativi delle azioni dell’azienda stessa da parte dei suoi top manager. William Lazonick è professore alla…
Walmart’s $20 billion buyback may be bid to forestall potential activists
By Cathaleen Chen “Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s $20 billion stock buyback program could be a bid to quiet dissent among a group of increasingly restive institutional shareholders, even though the massive family-owned retailer doesn’t now face any known activist threats.”… [Click HERE to read the…
America’s plutocrats are running for office across the country: Can our democracy survive it?
By Les Leopold “In his best-selling Capital in the 21st Century, economist Thomas Piketty alerted us to the new aristocracy of wealth being formed by runaway inequality. We have only to look at Illinois to see what this means for…
“Worse Than Big Tobacco”: How Big Pharma Fuels the Opioid Epidemic
By Lynn Parramore “Over a 40-year career, Philadelphia attorney Daniel Berger has obtained millions in settlements for investors and consumers hurt by a rogues’ gallery of corporate wrongdoers, from Exxon to R.J. Reynolds Tobacco. But when it comes to what…
The Equifax breach happened because today’s executives know they’ve got nothing to fear
By Lynn Stuart Parramore “Right now, somewhere in the darkest regions of cyberspace, somebody is very possibly using bitcoins to buy highly sensitive information about you – your phone number, address, Social Security number, and driver’s license number. Some day,…
Real American economy and ‘legalized looting’ by big US companies
By Michael Hennigan “On Monday Lawrence Summers, Harvard economist, former Treasury secretary and director of the National Economic Council in the first term of President Obama, in effect called President Trump’s top 3 economic advisers lying fraudsters in his monthly column…
