“…Authors William Lazonick, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Massachusetts and the president of the Academic-Industry Research Network, and Matt Hopkins, a Ph.D. student at SOAS University of London and a senior researcher at the Academic-Industry Research Network,…
MEDIA
Big Pharma Wants to Pocket the Profits From a COVID Treatment You Already Paid For
… “In an April 30, 2020 letter from Representatives Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) and Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar, the Representatives requested “an appropriate accounting of the taxpayers’ investments. … to ensure patients and…
Covid-19: Closing Down Was Easy; Re-Opening Will Be Hard
“Ensuring the health and safety of our people and our communities is our highest priority as the United States quickly mobilizes to slow the spread of Covid-19,” said McDonald’s. via PRovoke I by Paul Holmes I May 18, 2020 [Click HERE…
No Vaccine in Sight
… “Though early shifts in IP law set the stage for this financialization, it soon became a self-fueling cycle. Pharma today is a creature of Wall Street, where high drug prices are not intended to fund future R&D so much…
Top US companies lay off thousands of workers while rewarding shareholders amid coronavirus pandemic
“Some of the largest companies in the U.S. have rewarded their shareholders amid the coronavirus pandemic after firing thousands of employees. Companies like heavy machinery manufacturer Caterpillar, denim-maker Levi Strauss, toolmaker Stanley Black & Decker, furniture manufacturer Steelcase and World Wrestling Entertainment have…
Top US companies lay off thousands of workers while rewarding shareholders amid coronavirus pandemic
“In a downturn like this the first thing a company should do is give up any distributions to shareholders,” William Lazonick, an economist at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, told The Post. “But in a crisis, companies will differ. Some…
U.S. companies cut thousands of workers while continuing to reward shareholders during pandemic
“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…
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,…