These Companies Enriched Themselves. Now They’re Getting a Bailout.

[ZiprHead]

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/27/opinion/coronavirus-bailout.html?action=click&auth=login-google&module=moreIn&pgtype=Article&region=Footer

Are taxpayers rewarding a decade of bad behavior? The $2 trillion coronavirus relief package making its way through Congress will yield payments to most Americans and protections for workers, but also special treatment — bailouts — for a number of industries and companies. The airline industry is expected to get some $50 billion in cash and loans; Boeing, which asked for $60 billion, is widely expected to receive some part of a $17 billion fund. And a general bailout fund of some $500 billion is expected to be used for other industries, like hotels and cruise lines, whose business has dried up.

To what degree are taxpayers being asked to bail out wealthy creditors, and to reward companies that, during years when they made enormous profits, spent their money propping up their own stock prices?

 

[repoman]

I read, but have no proof, that stock buybacks were illegal until Reagan.

 

[laughing dog]

I read, but have no proof, that stock buybacks were illegal until Reagan.

True. Until 1982, stock buybacks were illegal because of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 which was passed because stock buybacks were considered a form of stock price manipulation.