Stock buybacks have totaled $5.3 trillion over the past decade — has that contributed to U.S. pandemic failures?

“…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, argue that share buybacks are a core tenet of “maximizing shareholder value,” which until last year was the Business Roundtable’s definition of the purpose of a corporation…”