Sen. Tammy Baldwin has written a letter to SEC Chair Mary Jo White, questioning Rule 10b-18 that since 1982 has given corporations a safe harbor from manipulation charges in doing stock buybacks. Sen. Baldwin’s letter draws on Bill Lazonick’s research on stock buybacks, done at theAIRnet and funded by the Institute for New Economic Thinking. Ken Jacobson, theAIRnet’s communications director, provided information to Sen. Baldwin’s staff on the origins and implications of Rule 10b-18, based on new research on this issue that he has been doing with Lazonick.
Further readings from William Lazonick on this issue:
Profits without Prosperity, Harvard Business Review, September 2014.
Stock buybacks: From retain-and reinvest to downsize-and-distribute, The Brookings Institute, April 2015.