Letters: Corporate buybacks equal corporate greed; U.S. in crisis due to Biden policies
Corporate buybacks equal corporate greed
A part of the recently passed Biden legislation includes a 1% excise tax on corporate stock buybacks designed to discourage this abused and misunderstood practice.
In 1982 the SEC softened rules on corporations wanting to buy back shares owned by the public, allowing them to more freely execute stock buybacks. Simply put, when a publicly traded corporation like Walmart or Microsoft buys back shares from its existing shareholders, the number of outstanding shares reduce, which “artificially” causes the share price to go up. Many times, the largest public shareholders are also the same corporate executives who make the decision to launch a buyback and thereby become the largest beneficiaries in the scheme because the value of their shares improve to the inflated price. This practice diverts funds from corporate coffers to shareholders instead of reinvesting those funds to grow their business.
The timing of decline in manufacturing and innovation, and the shifting of manufacturing overseas (a major cause of supply-chain problems now), match closely to this 1982 SEC decision. Imagine 40 years of this greedy money grab! Imagine still, if these corporations instead used that cash to expand and modernize factories. High paying American jobs would have grown instead of shrunk and America would be in much better shape if it had.
Stock buyback rules from the ‘80s have benefited the already wealthy at the expense of American workers and America’s future. It’s time for the SEC to rethink and rewrite this rule and get America back on track.
U.S. in crisis due to Biden policies
The United States is in a crisis due to the Biden administration’s policies. Let’s recap several of them.
Troops were hastily pulled out of Afghanistan, leaving Americans behind and about $80 billion of highly sensitive military equipment for our adversaries. Afghanistan has since reverted back to its past prehistoric treatment of women.
An open southern border is flooding the United States with illegal immigrants and drugs. The lack of border law enforcement is costing taxpayers billions of dollars and impacting human lives due to drug addictions and overdose deaths.
Out of control federal spending and regulations have produced the highest inflation in four decades and high gas prices, having the greatest impact on low- and middle-income families.
President Biden thought the threat of economic sanctions would deter Russia from invading Ukraine rather than providing military equipment before the invasion. When have sanctions deterred past Russian military excursions into neighboring countries?
An executive order exempted $10,000 in student loans. All taxpayers will pay the bill.
Several weeks ago, Biden’s Justice Department and FBI were weaponized to raid the home of a former president and a potential candidate against the current president. Every American should be outraged!
We have a crisis in the United States which is the result of the Biden Administration’s ruinous policies and Justice Department pursuing two systems of justice – one for supporters and one for opponents. In November, vote for candidates who pledge to reverse these damaging policies intended to adversely change the direction of our great country.
A Democrat’s view?
A great many in the Democrat party think the American rule of law is that if Hillary Clinton did it, then it is not a crime.