The Schumer-Sanders "Buyback Ban" Is a Terrible Idea - Do This Instead
Last week, senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Bernie Sanders (D-VT) co-authored an opinion piece in The New York Times titled: "Limit Corporate Buybacks: Corporate self-indulgence has become an enormous problem for workers and for the long-term strength of the economy."
The senators said, "From the mid-20th century until the 1970s, American corporations shared a belief that they had a duty not only to their shareholders but to their workers, their communities, and the country."
I have to say the senators are right: Buybacks should be limited. They benefit too few people, who already have the advantage.
But the senators are dead wrong about buybacks' impact on workers and the wider economy.
That a bunch of D.C. insiders are wrong isn't news at all. But in this case, I'll show you the senators' prescription for fixing the problem is disingenuous at best, and a command-economy disaster at worst.
The good news is, the problem of buybacks is very fixable.
And my way to do it would not only benefit corporations and shareholders, but regular, middle-class workers and small investors, too...