By Pano Kroko “I led a two day High Level Economic, Business, and Finance Summit on Capitalism in London and these are the conclusions we arrived at and the actions we aim to take in the near and longer term:…
AIR IMPACT
Recognition of AIR research, opinions, and people in the media and elsewhere
Mortgaging America’s Future
By David Brodwin “Around 1980, The U.S economy took a dramatic and dangerous turn. From the end of World War II until the late 1970s, wages advanced roughly in parallel with productivity. As workers got more productive, companies got more profitable,…
Profits sans prospérité
By Stéphane Lauer “Voilà cinq ans que la récession a pris fin aux Etats-Unis. Enfin, officiellement. Car le retour à meilleure fortune est sans doute plus palpable à Wall Street qu’à Main Street (pour l’Américain moyen).”… [Click HERE to read…
Has capitalism reached a turning point?
By Steve Denning “In the early 16th Century, the movement objecting to the flagrant greed and corruption in the Roman Catholic Church, now known as the Protestant Reformation, got under way in earnest. In 1517 in Germany, Martin Luther posted his…
Share buybacks: Symptoms of a decaying economic order
By Nick Beams “The extent of the parasitism at the centre of the US economy and financial system is indicated by recent figures on the level of corporate buybacks. Rather than using profits to finance increased investment in equipment, as…
Bill Clinton’s corporate fantasy
By Robert Borosage “At the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative this week, former President Bill Clinton predicted corporations would soon care less about maximizing profits and more about employees and society. This would happen without significant government involvement because “of…
Share buybacks, quantitative easing, secular stagnation and the risks of Myopic Share Virus..
Anonymous “The point about share buybacks is that they sit uncomfortably in a widening narrative of increasing inequality, weak income growth (worse at lower income levels), falling economic growth rates and disturbing trends in both human and capital investment. The…
Are buybacks hurting the economy?
By Cydney Posner “According to “Companies’ Stock Buybacks Help Buoy the Market,” by Dan Strumpf, published in the WSJ on September 15, 2014, “[c]ompanies are buying their own shares at the briskest clip since the financial crisis, helping fuel a stock rally…
Maximization of shareholder value: Flawed thinking that threatens our economic future
By David Larrabee “One of the most widely promulgated falsehoods in investing is the notion that those managing publicly held companies are obligated to maximize shareholder value. In recent years, US companies have taken on record amounts of debt to…
Think debt-funded stock buybacks are pernicious? Here’s why you’re right
By Steve Roth “I’ve ranted about this phenomenon for a long time: Do Businesses Borrow to Invest in Productive Assets? Quoting JW Mason: “the marginal dollar borrowed by a nonfinancial business in this period was simply handed on to shareholders, without…
