Authored by Ralph Nader via Evonomics.com,
The monster of economic waste - over $7 trillion of dictated stock buybacks since 2003 by the self-enriching CEOs of large corporations - started with a little noticed change in 1982 by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under President Ronald Reagan. That was when SEC Chairman John Shad, a former Wall Street CEO, redefined unlawful ‘stock manipulation’ to exclude stock buybacks.
Authored by Chris Hamilton via Econimica blog,
(The following was written as an outline for a potential book. To this point no publisher has shown interest and time and funds have run out.)
There's a chance tax reform may not get done!!! Inconceivable!!
With WTI back below the Maginot Line of $50, speculative investors are growing increasingly anxious about their record extreme bullish positioning across the energy complex.
As Reuters' John Kemp reports, hedge fund bullishness towards crude oil and refined products including gasoline and diesel appears to have peaked for now, according to an analysis of regulatory and exchange records.
In a note released this morning by Macquarie's Viktor Shvetz, the bank's stunned head of global equity strategy looks at what has become a "world without risk" and makes several observations, the key of which is absolutely spot on: "Investors are probably suffering extreme mental exhaustion.