“William Lazonick, an emeritus economics professor at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, has been one of the leading critics of companies that distribute cash to shareholders through stock buybacks and dividends rather than reinvesting the profits into employees, innovation…
COVID-19
How to manage public stake in bailed-out companies
“The stimulus bill passed by Congress in response to the COVID-19 economic crisis includes massive bailouts for airlines and other large companies deemed necessary for national security, in the aggregate around $500 billion, including $25 billion for company payrolls.”… via The American…
How To Manage Public Stakes In Bailed-Out Companies
“On such a model, it makes intuitive sense for the government to take equity from the companies in which it is itself an investor. A government loan, for example, is essentially a government investment; and in general, it is well…
Share buybacks have been the ‘only net source of money entering the stock market’ since 2008
“Like every great crisis, the coronavirus pandemic has laid bare everything rotten and degenerate in capitalist society. Nowhere is that exposure more pronounced than in the case of the stock market—that vast institutionalised mechanism through which the wealth of society,…
Coronavirus Crisis and Bringing Manufacturing Back
“Tripp Babbitt shares his interpretation of wide-ranging aspects and implications of Dr. Deming’s theory of management. This month he looks at the Coronavirus crisis, past crises, and where we go from here.” [Click HERE to listen the interview]
The COVID-19 Pandemic Exposes Balance-Sheet Frailties. It Is Time To Enforce Fiscal Discipline!
“Stock-based compensation plans for corporate executives are the main driving force behind the stock buyback binges. Professor William Lazonick writes, “Stock-based instruments make up the majority of the executives’ pay, and in the short term buybacks drive up stock prices.”…
How the Stock Buyback Bazooka Has Been Silenced by Virus
“Against the backdrop of President Ronald Reagan’s deregulatory drive in the 1980s, restrictions on buybacks were loosened, executives were granted a safe harbor from stock-price manipulation charges and a culture of “shareholder value” was born. A wave of hostile takeovers…
Top Economist: Instead of Basic Income, Let’s Keep People Working Productively During the Crisis
“As the pandemic rages, everyone is scrambling to figure out how to protect people getting economically pummeled. Americans may soon get a cash injection to help them fight the economic devastation of Covid-19 as part of a stimulus bill agreed…
4 Ways to Eradicate the Corporate Disease That is Worsening the Covid-19 Pandemic
“It’s time for business executives, employees, and taxpayers to come together to help get us out of the pandemic and create conditions for a sustainable and equitable future Here are the key ways to respond to the coronavirus crisis and…
House Democrats Demand Fair Drug Pricing For Taxpayer-Funded Coronavirus Vaccine or Treatment
“We are concerned that your Administration has already indicated its willingness to invest heavily in public-private partnerships without any conditions in place to guarantee affordable drug pricing and access. On February 4, 2020, the HHS Biomedical Advanced Research and Development…
