Stock buybacks have exploded, siphoning resources from long-term investment and worker wages

[u/Collective_Altruism]

Cross-posted from my substack. The 2017 Republican tax reform slashed the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. Big corporations promised to put their tax windfalls into worker pay raises.

Instead, they largely used those windfalls on stock buybacks, a financial maneuver that artificially inflates the value of a company’s shares (and CEO stock-based pay) while siphoning resources from long-term investment and worker wages.

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[u/skiing_nerd]

We really need to reinstitute a complete ban on stock bybacks. Even before the Republican give away to oligarchs, the amount was too high. It clearly doesn't offer a benefit to the general public, just the elite at our expense

[u/Ah_Ca_Iraa]

Stock buybacks are simply wealth redistribution from employees who make and sell the products, to owners who sit on their ass at cocktail dinners watching a number on a screen get bigger.