Value creation v. value extraction
Bill Lazonick writes in the Harvard Business Review:
The debate over how to reverse ever-increasing income inequality has moved front and center in the Democratic presidential campaign. In speeches on July 13 and July 24, front-runner Hillary Clinton first outlined and then elaborated upon her policy agenda for combating what she calls “quarterly capitalism.” In emphasizing the need for value-creating business investment in an economy in which value-extracting financial interests are driving corporate resource-allocation decisions, the Clinton economic reform package is novel and refreshing for a Democratic presidential contender….
But perhaps the most elegant solution is one Clinton has not yet advocated: simply banning corporations from making open-market repurchases of their shares.
Read Lazonick’s piece here. See Econ4’s Jerry Epstein take on this issue here.
A view from the top
Bill Gross, managing director of the investment firm PIMCO, urges the 1% to get some common economic sense:
1) Growth depends on investment and investment in part depends on an equitable rebalancing of personal income taxes, capital gains and carried interest.
2) The era of taxing “capital” at lower rates than “labor” should end.
3) Investors in the U.S. and elsewhere must look for investment in the real economy, not share buy-back maneuvers that artificially elevate stock prices.
Read his blog on the “Scrooge McDucks” of the world and the need for real tax reform here.
Race to the bottom
Econ4’s Jerry Epstein breaks downs the fallacy of ‘tax incentives’ as a lure to investment:
Source: The Real News Network.
Read the New York Times story on corporate tax giveaways here.
Talking sense on the nation’s balance sheet
Mattea Kramer of the National Priorities Project writes:
Ironically, those in Washington arguing for urgent deficit reduction claim that we’ve got to do it “for the kids,” that we must stop saddling our grandchildren with mountains of federal debt. But if your child turns 18 and finds her government running a balanced budget in an America that’s hollowed out, an America where she has no chance of paying for a college education, will she celebrate?
Read her guide to what’s missing from the presidential debates here.
