The Economist: Elizabeth Warren wants to remake American capitalism

[BeyondGeography]

5. Not going to sign up to read this, but if they don't address this part of the great American rip-off

the article is an absolute joke:

Over the last decade-and-a-half, firms have sent 94 percent of corporate profits out to shareholders, in the form of buybacks, as well as dividends, leaving companies to argue that there is little available for employee compensation or investment(Lazonick 2014). Specifically, William Lazonick (2014) examines the corporate practices of 449 companies that were listed on the S&P 500 continuously from 2003-2012. He found that companies used 54 percent of their earnings to buy back their own stock and spent an additional 37 percent on dividends of their earnings.

http://rooseveltinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Stock-buybacks.pdf

Understand this, under the banner of “shareholder values” a small group of owners have appropriated everyone’s productivity gains for themselves. Oh, sorry, just 94 percent. So when people wonder why they move sideways-to-down while a small slice continues to moves skyward there it is. Some call it the free market, others call it organized theft. I want a President who sees it from the latter perspective and will work to do something about it.