How Stock Buybacks Make Americans Vulnerable to Globalization
15 Pages Posted: 11 Mar 2016
Date Written: March 1, 2016
Abstract
Drawing on a large and growing body of research, I summarize how rationalization, marketization, and globalization have eroded middle-class employment opportunities since the 1980s. Then I document the extent to which over the same time-period financial interests, including senior corporate executives, have extracted cash from companies in the name of maximizing shareholder value. Finally I indicate why this value-extracting activity has rendered ineffective traditional macroeconomic and international trade policy. I call for a policy focus on the governance of business enterprise to support stable and equitable growth.
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