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Barry Ritholtz

Why Stock Buybacks Do So Little for Americans

Instead of restricting share repurchases, expand the pool of people with a stake in markets.

There’s a better idea. — There’s a better idea.
Photographer: Zach Gibson/Bloomberg

By

February 7, 2019, 5:30 PM UTC

Senators Chuck Schumer and Bernie Sanders recently inveighed against corporate stock buybacks and suggested they’d like a law that limits share repurchases to those companies that pay a minimum wage of $15 or more an hour.

This idea, however well-intentioned, would replace management’s judgment on matters of corporate capital allocation with that of Congress’s. No thanks.