Seeing record buybacks at a time of record profits and corporate greed is not a surprise, because governments are allowing all that.

But what makes it worse, and sickening, is that it is often the execs who are selling the company.

It is almost like a ponzi scheme:

Execs get bonuses in the form of cheap shares > they pump up the share price with buybacks > sell their shares back to the corporation > get bonuses because the share price went up.

In 3 charts we can see that execs are selling more shares, buybacks are increasing, and a big portion of the rise of the overall sharemarket is due to buybacks.

Source: https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/ponzi-insiders-dump-stocks-own-companies-record-pace

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Aside from them being leeches, they also break laws. Not many companies have been fined $10 billion. And how any business deal can attract a $593 million fee is beyond comprehension.

Poor Roger Ng, once a power-suited global banker on the fast track at Goldman Sachs, a rainmaker in billion-dollar deals, now just a fall guy about to go on trial in America’s “biggest foreign bribery case” ever. The case involves a Malaysian state-owned investment fund that was ostensibly selling bonds to bankroll assorted development projects. But most of the bond-sale proceeds actually went to corrupt Malaysian officials, with Goldman Sachs pocketing $593 million for managing the shady sales, a strikingly huge fee way out of line with standard banking practice. Goldman lawyers have blamed the scandal on “rogue employees” like Ng. But the banking giant isn’t testing that claim in open court. Goldman instead last month reached a settlement with U.S. prosecutors that will bring the fines the bank has paid out since 1998 to over $10 billion. Ng, for his part, isn’t going down quietly. His lead defense: The USA has no right to prosecute him for crimes committed in Malaysia.

This is from an inequality.org email.

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We are in the virus crisis, and Boeing & the airlines are asking for handouts. Airlines are necessary infrastructure, but Boeing is simply a large employer, like say car manufacturers.

What is interesting is these are businesses that have made a lot of money in the last decade, but instead of putting it in the bank, they have been buying back their own shares. Less shares in the market causes the share price to rise, making investors and executives richer.

They are literally lining their own pockets instead of saving money in an industry that can be highly volatile.

Boeing has spent $100 billion buying back its own shares since 2013.

For example, Boeing’s report to shareholders in 2017 said:

• Solid core operating performance led to core operating earnings of nearly $5.5 billion, core earnings per share of $7.24 and a company-record $10.5 billion in cash.
• We continued to deploy that cash responsibly, repurchasing 55 million shares of Boeing stock for $7 billion and paying $2.8 billion in dividends. Encouraged by our performance and positive long-term outlook, our board of directors in December increased the quarterly dividend 30 percent and authorized a new $14 billion share repurchase program.
• Together, this sustained strong performance has driven Boeing’s stock price to an all-time high, hitting $184.83 last Friday, 38 percent higher than this time last year.

So, they saved just $700M of the $10.5B they made in cash that year, purely to enrich investors and execs (through bonuses). They then cut corners with safety on their MAX aircraft, causing their profits and share price to collapse. And now they are crying “poor us, we need help”.

This is a major problem with capitalism – too big to fail. Large corporations get handouts in times of need (and typically don’t pay them back), while siphoning away profits when times are good. Small businesses cannot do this, putting them at a distinct disadvantage.

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