So much for hoping Sinema would remove the poison!I agree that buybacks are often the go-to move for CEOs who are out of ideas but believe that in many cases, "no ideas" are a damned sight better than bad ideas -- especially ones that are not only ill-considered, but load up the company's balance sheet with a trainload of debt!
Look - I'm not a fan of stock buybacks. They're often the last refuge of the unimaginative CEO. But they do have their time and place. The last thing I want to see is the fucking feds sticking their greedy fingers into yet another place where they have no business going - this time, they're gumming up the free flow of capital and infringing on the freedom of private companies to fine-tune their own balance sheets.
This is dangerous and frightening stuff. It's a sop to the clueless socialists who disparage ALL stock buybacks as evil because they hate capitalism and, like Bernie Sanders, never worked in the private sector or met a payroll and therefore don't understand the workings of the economic system they detest, the one that creates all of the wealth they feed off for the government largesse they need to expand their power.
As the WSJ notes, once this tax is created don't think the dumbass dim-retards will stop at 1%. And they are chock-full of other bad ideas that would throw all kinds of monkey wrenches into the US economy. I've heard talk of a tax on all stock and/or transactions. Just think what that would do for the liquidity of our financial markets!
(I realize this topic is way beyond the ken of the OP, but perhaps other posters would care to weigh in.) Originally Posted by lustylad
A few of AT&T's misadventures over the last 7-8 years, for one very large example. (Would have been a lot better to have just done a few mega-buybacks!) Additionally, CEOs have sometimes been guilty of terrible timing and bought shares at or near market peaks.
But if a company wants to buy some of its own stock, what fucking business should that be of the feds?
And, like you said, once the excise tax on buybacks is enacted, future demagogic politicians might start ratcheting up the rate, especially since this idea is relatively easy to sell as a tax hike on the "rich."
As you also said, transaction taxes could very well be next in the hit parade.
When progressive demagogues start brainstorming, there's no telling what sorts of capital formation-impeding and growth-impeding ideas they'll dream up next!
