In the last 40 years we have created a Commons composed of a web of legal statutes and rules that make crime possible for all the 'nice' neighbors we each have who are on the Board of Directors of public corporations, or are CPAs certifying Enron scams, or are attorneys writing by-laws and tax loop holes to deliberately defraud their com…
In the last 40 years we have created a Commons composed of a web of legal statutes and rules that make crime possible for all the 'nice' neighbors we each have who are on the Board of Directors of public corporations, or are CPAs certifying Enron scams, or are attorneys writing by-laws and tax loop holes to deliberately defraud their community and neighbors.
Their behavior is criminal, and it will not stop unless they are convinced that their behavior is criminal, rather than just 'petty-cash' bullying that can be excused by a pleasant, short-term time out or a small, insignificant fine.
This used to be a crime called “stock price manipulation” and was one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s and Congress’ early targets when they went after the Wall Street crooks who brought us the Republican Great Depression of the 1930s.
Congress created the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 1934 and FDR put Joe Kennedy (JFK’s father) in charge of it; Kennedy ironically told my old friend the late Gloria Swanson that he was chosen because, she told me, FDR had wisecracked that, “It takes a crook to catch a crook.”
Kennedy, knowing how the game worked, outlawed stock buybacks as one of his first official acts.
But in 1982 President Reagan endorsed this very form of corporate corruption as part of his new neoliberal Reaganomics agenda, decriminalizing it for the first time in almost a half-century.
Lest you think it improbable that modern CEOs would do this, as it’s so obviously corrupt and harmful to the company itself, consider this headline from the corporate watchdog group Accountable.US:
“Southwest Cancellation Crisis Follows Execs’ Choice to Reward $5.6B to Shareholders Instead of Investing in Infrastructure”
As their press release lays out:
“Government watchdog Accountable.US called the airline’s cancellation crisis a problem of its own making after slashing its workforce by over 1,400 in 2021 and choosing to spend $5.6 billion on stock buybacks in the 3 years leading up to the pandemic rather than making investments in infrastructure to be better prepared for extreme weather events like this week…”
This Reaganomics neoliberalism scam has made America’s corporate CEOs and stock speculators among the wealthiest people in the world, while keeping down wages and benefits for everybody else. It’s hurt the competitiveness of American business.
It started with Reagan’s putting John Shad— the Vice Chairman of the monster investment house E.F. Hutton — in charge of the SEC, which regulates monster investment houses.
Shad wasted no time in deregulating stock buybacks, instituting in 1982 what’s now known as “Rule 10b-18” that made stock buybacks explicitly legal for the first time since 1934.
Since then, share buybacks have become the most personally profitable business scam CEOs and senior executives can run against their own employees, companies, and communities.
In the last 40 years we have created a Commons composed of a web of legal statutes and rules that make crime possible for all the 'nice' neighbors we each have who are on the Board of Directors of public corporations, or are CPAs certifying Enron scams, or are attorneys writing by-laws and tax loop holes to deliberately defraud their community and neighbors.
We have allowed this; why in the world are we not, individually, having ethical, common sense chats with these well-off neighbors, friends, family members or fellow church goers https://hbr.org/2016/12/why-ethical-people-make-unethical-choices?
Their behavior is criminal, and it will not stop unless they are convinced that their behavior is criminal, rather than just 'petty-cash' bullying that can be excused by a pleasant, short-term time out or a small, insignificant fine.
The incumbent legislators across every state, in Washington, D.C and Brussels have been re-elected year after year by voters whining and being too lazy to really vote for Serving Legislators instead of lobbyists https://profound-answers.com/why-do-congressional-incumbents-usually-win-re-election/
Mr. Hartman citation:
This was once a crime - and should be now
This used to be a crime called “stock price manipulation” and was one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s and Congress’ early targets when they went after the Wall Street crooks who brought us the Republican Great Depression of the 1930s.
Congress created the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 1934 and FDR put Joe Kennedy (JFK’s father) in charge of it; Kennedy ironically told my old friend the late Gloria Swanson that he was chosen because, she told me, FDR had wisecracked that, “It takes a crook to catch a crook.”
Kennedy, knowing how the game worked, outlawed stock buybacks as one of his first official acts.
But in 1982 President Reagan endorsed this very form of corporate corruption as part of his new neoliberal Reaganomics agenda, decriminalizing it for the first time in almost a half-century.
Lest you think it improbable that modern CEOs would do this, as it’s so obviously corrupt and harmful to the company itself, consider this headline from the corporate watchdog group Accountable.US:
“Southwest Cancellation Crisis Follows Execs’ Choice to Reward $5.6B to Shareholders Instead of Investing in Infrastructure”
As their press release lays out:
“Government watchdog Accountable.US called the airline’s cancellation crisis a problem of its own making after slashing its workforce by over 1,400 in 2021 and choosing to spend $5.6 billion on stock buybacks in the 3 years leading up to the pandemic rather than making investments in infrastructure to be better prepared for extreme weather events like this week…”
This Reaganomics neoliberalism scam has made America’s corporate CEOs and stock speculators among the wealthiest people in the world, while keeping down wages and benefits for everybody else. It’s hurt the competitiveness of American business.
It started with Reagan’s putting John Shad— the Vice Chairman of the monster investment house E.F. Hutton — in charge of the SEC, which regulates monster investment houses.
Shad wasted no time in deregulating stock buybacks, instituting in 1982 what’s now known as “Rule 10b-18” that made stock buybacks explicitly legal for the first time since 1934.
Since then, share buybacks have become the most personally profitable business scam CEOs and senior executives can run against their own employees, companies, and communities.