The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    Warren's Plan for Boeing, Wall Street Bailouts

    By NCD on Wed, 03/18/2020 - 11:32am |

    Warren in the last 48 hours, on stopping 'gaming of the debt and taxpayer bailout system' by the wealthy shareholders and executives of big corporations. Saw this on Twitter, cannot find it on major news site.

    Seems to be ignored by major media. This from Reddit:

    Here are Warren's eight conditions:

    • Companies must maintain payrolls and use federal funds to keep people working. Businesses must provide $15 an hour minimum wage quickly but no later than a year from the end

    • Companies would be permanently banned from engaging in stock buybacks.

    • Companies would be barred from paying out dividends or executive bonuses while they receive federal funds and the ban would be in place for three years.

    • Businesses would have to provide at least one seat to workers on their board of directors, though it could be more depending on size of the rescue package.

    • Collective bargaining agreements must remain in place.

    • Corporate boards must get shareholder approval for all political spending.

    • CEOs must certify their companies are complying with the rules and face criminal penalties for violating them.

    Stock buybacks were illegal until 1982. The SEC, operating under the Reagan Republicans, passed rule 10b-18, which made stock buybacks legal. Up until the passing of this rule, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 considered large-scale share repurchases a form of stock manipulation. Stock manipulation that involved gaming share price to increase CEO pay and reward shareholders, by and large the wealthy.  With full knowledge that in a downturn where they couldn't get new loans, the taxpayer would bail them out.

     

    Boeing is in serious trouble. It's recent record of stock buybacks, dividends and CEO pay:

    Marketwatch:

    “This is a company that boasts on its website that it has bought back $35 billion of shares and paid $15 billion in dividends over the last 5 years,” Stallard wrote. “It has also paid executives egregious amounts of money and been implicated in two fatal air crashes.”

    Read more: Congressional report shows ‘culture of concealment’ at Boeing.

    Boeing bought back $6.91 billion worth of its shares in the fourth-quarter alone, and paid out roughly $1.2 billion in dividends.

    In 2019, then-Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg received total compensation of $14.25 million, compared with the annual total compensation of a “median employee” of $158,869.

    3/10/20 - Boeing drew down it's entire credit line of $13.8 billion.

    Comments

    Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) blasts McConnell, Trump on 3/12, just before McConnell dismisses the Senate and heads out of town, and before allowing debate or a vote on the House aid Bill for coronavirus. Today, 3/18, McConnell has not yet allowed a senate vote on that Bill.

     


    by NCD on Wed, 03/18/2020 - 3:48pm

    Doing Putin's dirty work - that's a good Mitch. We are so fucked.


    by PeraclesPlease on Wed, 03/18/2020 - 4:20pm

    Aside on Sherrod Brown, if we can all do as good a "hand over heart" as he does, the whole social distancing thing be a breeze:


    by artappraiser on Wed, 03/18/2020 - 5:06pm

    Remarkable man of integrity, just the type McConnell, Trump, Putin and Fox News would like to frustrate and push out of politics.

    I recall when he chewed out Orrin Hatch because Hatch was moaning Republicans couldn't approve $3 billion to extend CHIP, healthcare for poor kids, because the country couldn't afford it. 


    by NCD on Wed, 03/18/2020 - 6:54pm

    Miz McArdle has definitely noted it:

    To place in context, her op-ed for WaPo yesterday was the shocking A libertarian’s unlikely pandemic plea: Subsidize everything


    by artappraiser on Wed, 03/18/2020 - 7:38pm

    How are CEOs supposed to earn a living  and reap bonuses, if they can't use taxpayer loans to buyback their companies stock  ? Shareholders need dividends, not fair to make company investors suffer just because the company went broke.


    by NCD on Thu, 03/19/2020 - 12:47am

    So committing to $15/hour in a financial/health meltdown?

    I don't quite get it - this isn't the time to be promoting Bernie jingoism.
    Yes, boost the minimum wage. But to something sustainable.


    by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 03/19/2020 - 8:23am