Readit Newsbeezle commented on CEO pay and stock buybacks have soared at the largest low-wage corporations ips-dc.org/report-executi... · Posted by u/hhs
Stock buybacks were never illegal. Stock buybacks were how Buffett took control of a small textile mill called Berkshire Hathaway in the 1960s. What was not allowed was at-the-market buybacks in the open market. Corporations had to do tender offers at a fixed price, usually well above market price, in order to attract sellers to mail in their certificates. I'm not sure why that is necessarily better or helps anyone, so I think allowing ATM buybacks is a net good.
If one does not think that buy backs are good to begin with, making them as difficult as possible (as was the case before the mid 80s) is preferable to the situation today.
Buybacks are just a more tax-efficient way to issue dividends to shareholders (dividend issuance is a taxable event and at short-term rates, buybacks raise the stock price and those gains aren't taxable until you sell, at which point it may be long-term cap gains).
It's reasonable to be upset about the fact that this is arguably a tax dodge! But all of the other criticism of buybacks apply equally to dividends which no one seems to get upset about. Fundamentally this is the corporation saying it doesn't have a market-beating way to reinvest this capital, and it's giving the money back to its owners to more productively invest.
Until the mid-80s they were illegal except in a handful of unique cases. This is not just about div vs buyback taxes. Though there is no immediate mathematical economical benefit to the shareholders who remain, the markets have proven that the stock price will rise (and likely executive compensation) as a result of reduced sharecount vs the same demand (though possibly more demand as other companies engage in the same behavior).
Much of the gains in the stock market the past decade or so are simply the result of a greatly reduced number of shares available to purchase - as a result of buybacks, takeovers and going private (there are roughly 1/2 the number of listed companies today as in the 1990s).
The complete (long) title is:
Clinical and metabolic response to probiotic administration in people with Parkinson's disease: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial
Shocked this wasn't on the front page already. Italy 1926.
beezle commented on White Mountain Direttissima whitemountainski.co/pages... · Posted by u/oftenwrong
Worst weather in the world!
I had friends up (Greens) in midish July and we were talking about taking the trip over to the Shire to do Mt. Washington the following day or two... until we checked the summit forecast: temps in the 30s and wind chills around 15F. Instead, we drank some beers did some chores and did the much easier Camel's Hump!
No you see, the poors are bad people and deserve to be poor.
OP identified say $2000 in annual luxuries. If they lived a completely ascetic lifestyle free of wants, that would put them 0.4% closer to buying that $500k house on their $40k annual salary.
Even if it is just 2K (I think closer to 3), that is 5% of their $40K that could go towards food, healthcare and rent (or mortgage).
Lazy Americans conflate anecdotes with reality. Make sure to hit the tropes though. The poor person with a Starbucks cup. The 'leased BMW bros are financial idiots'. The iPhone you have no idea where the person got (my son get's them as a christmas gift from his auntie). The cable bill (who under 50 has cable TV? What year is this post from?).
At best old boy discovered that human beings make inconsistent financial decisions when under stress because someone once held a latte cup, and thinks therefor people aren't struggling financially.
This is way too low effort/uninformative/nothing said to be the top comment. But it paints the correct narrative so those who don't want to see what's actually happening in this country probably love it.
I hope you realize that the people that are feeling "stressed" are not just the ones making minimum wage but also those making considerably more yet, somehow not managing to make ends meet.