Corporations Slash Worker Pay, Spend Billions Buying Their Own Stock

The repurchase of the stock boosts share prices in the immediate short-term by creating artificial demand for them and in the long term it increases the value of remaining shares by shorting supply and distributing dividends over a fewer number of owners. It is effectively a softer, cuddlier version of a reverse split that companies that are in danger of being delisted do when their shares drop below the minimum trading value of $1.00 per share on the NY exchange.

 

You might be right. It would take responsible and conscientious leaders, and we don't have any like that.

 

they would have no choice, and that is what the right wants, they want to turn the USA into a 3rd world country with cheap labor

 

the right always agrees with giving money to the rich, but when it comes to helping the people, they are like, let's help no one

 

Isn't the US already a 3rd world country with cheap labor?

 

The Democrats would rather pay a person to stay at home and do nothing instead of working to protect jobs. That was Pelosi's position during the 2008 recession, and the reasoning behind Obama's jobless recovery.

 

Thanks for the reply and explanation.

Maybe it's just a matter of semantics about the term "cancel." To me, "cancel" implies "destroy" and it doesn't make sense to buy the shares and then destroy them. On the other hand, if "cancel" means "remove the stocks from circulation," then it would make sense.

So, does the company actually "destroy" the shares, or does it now simply own shares of itself? By retaining those shares instead of destroying them, in the future when the stock price goes up, the company can sell those shares and make money off the transaction. It just wouldn't make sense to buy the shares and then destroy them.

I feel that the main reason for a company to buy back its stock is to gain more internal control of the company as opposed to investor control, plus the company can retain any dividends paid on those stocks, as Grayman mentioned above.

 

i have an idea, let's tax the living hell out of those corporations, then they will have more money to pay workers more.........wait.........huh?

 

So you agree with the billionaire, Bezos who owns the WP ? Lol

If there was no min wage , wages would go up? Lol.. Hell they would go down! Workers need protection from the sociopaths at the top.

The problems is the min wage is far too low! Our reality is a reality where living wage jobs were allowed to move to slave labor , to exploit the powerless poor.in commie nations and badly corrupt govts like Mexico. As capitalism was allowed to disembowel our country and people.

The right wing have always been wrong for our history making middle class was not created by right wing economics! Indeed it is destroying our middle. Thanks to the dems who kicked working people to the curb. And cast them to the wolves of Wall street.

This idea that getting rid of a min wage will make wages go up is incoherent nonsense! Just another scheme like sweatshop globalism.. With most people being brainwashed and too ignorant to understand the nefarious scheme.

 

nope, Republicans re still trying

 

Why would anyone want that; left, right or somewhere in the middle? What good would it do anyone?

 

I do not know why republicans want that, why do they want to do away with the min wage so corps can pay people less then a min wage?

there are some things I will never understand

 

Interesting. I consider myself an Independent but if one were to label me it would likely be with the Libertarian label. And I say "let's help no one". Maybe it is not just the Right. Maybe there are lots of people who don't think the solution to every problem it throwing money at it.

 

Since when do people live within their means? Even rich people and companies spend 150% their actual income. I WISH they would bank some of it, because it would stabilize the economy if people lived more within their means and had a rainy day fund.

 

You are confused. A lot of Republicans prefer to help in ways that are sustainable instead of enabling people to live in dependence. It's like the old saying, give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for life.

There are exceptions of course. Some people simply cannot take care of themselves due to a major disability. Helping them is a bipartisan issue.

 

Ford was right. He used common sense and paid his workers more money for making his cars....so his employees could afford to buy the cars they were making! Other rich industrialists hated henry for paying workers more. For he didn't have to increase their pay and could have kept them working poor. So low pay by the rich is very old.

Most of these poor communists can't afford to buy what they produce . And the likes of henry ford no longer exist!

Capitalism can create a huge middle or it can send most of.the economic pie into fewer and fewer hands. And tear a society apart in the process. Eventually creating a revolution! Yet we never learn the lesson taught by history . Amnesia.

Most people just want their labor to be worth a living wage. And to have some sense of economic security. So they can afford a family and not suffer from poverty. And yet we have lost that due to changes in economic philosophy.

An example... My aunt worked her entire life at a locally owned dept store.. She bought her home , had nice stuff and was never in poverty. She was paid an hourly wage but earned a sales commission on her sales. She was middle, middle class. Now compare that to a Walmart employee! Same work but one is.a working Poor job and the other was a middle class job!
My aunt never needs welfare because her labor had value. And capitalism was differently practiced. It benefitted all people instead of only a few rich. It was subject to morality and values.

Now, I owned a small manufacturing business that served the construction sector..I had 4 competitors . The industry average in wages was 50 cents above min wage..And that was the wages paid by all 4 of my competitors.. These were working poor employees yet the owners of all 4 companies lived an upper middle class life. They all bought huge new homes and conspicuously consumed. They had arrived!!! While their employees lived in campers and old mobile homes.

Now my company paid middle class wages far above industry average..And as years past, I ended up with all their hard working and responsible employees. With no turnover. With minimal sick time used. I paid living wages and my fellow workers prospered by their labor..

The cost? I kept less so I could pay a living wage. I owned a decent house but not a million dollar home. As my competitors did. I didn't conspicuously consume, showing my peers I had arrived! No special hunting trips to harvest elk out west! No big vacations in the right places!

So this is a case of me keeping less of the pie so employees would be more middle class and prosper from their labor.

My competitors thought me insane. I think they were greed driven bastards. Using the indecent business model of Walmart that uses taxpayers to subsidize wages so profit can be maxed out.


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Why buy them up when forced closing gets rid of competition?

And yields monopoly?

We need exponential competition , the more companies the better. Yet we see the opposite . The anti trust laws are seldom used.

 

Well the republicans have not helped people to stay off of dependence of govt. For they have allowed our Job's

to be sent to commies creating need for welfare even as they blame the victims for job loss!

And the DP helped the GOP!

 

They cancel the stock meaning they are not going to resell those shares to the public. They get reabsorbed into the equity of the company on the balance sheets but that is about it They don't get to vote the shares, or take dividends off the shares (which would triple or quadruple their taxes on that money). While it may not make sense to you, 1) share prices matter and 2) share prices matter a great deal with those white collars loaded down with options or actual stocks from their own company. Inflating the market price increases their payday digits.

 

While not that common, it may not be uncommon either if the local business has an asset that interests them be it intellectual property, existing contracts, or their property. Companies like Walgreen's will buy up whatever is on the opposite side of the road from them if the can to keep CVS from being able to build there for instance. They will also buy up small pharmacies to get the customers and traffic flowing into their new stores.

 

sure, now that we have already given trillions to the mega corps, the right would agree with you

the people were harmed by a government shutdown, the government should help out same as any other disaster... that is why we pay taxes

Trump declared a national emergency, and they released guidelines to shutdown the country, we bailed out the corps, time to bail out the people

 

I appreciate the reply, thank you. I now see that insiders could profit from the practice.

 

That may be why you pay taxes; it is not why I pay taxes. I pay taxes because I am forced to. I am willing to pay a small amount of my income to allow the Government to operate the way it was originally designed to function. Government was never designed to rescue people form disasters. That's what neighbors and charities are for.

As I said, I am not in favor of giving money to anyone. To now give money to the people just because money was given to corporations would, in my opinion, be throwing good money after bad. Maybe once things get back to "normal" corporate tax should be increased to recover the money.

 

I have been involved in taking out mom and pop locally owned stores after graduating college. We had a couple hundred stores and would lose money on a new store as long as it took to drive the locally owned store out of business..

I even employed illegal means by purchasing power of numbers and rebates from suppliers that were illegal. My conscience made me leave that job .

 

I pay taxes to better society, if I did not want to pay taxes I would move to Mexico

I like having services like police, fire, fbi, cdc, ect.....

the reality is, we have passed the point of no return on debt, so now we are living on borrowed time, we have to print money until we crash