Stock buybacks used to be illegal market manipulation. Now they're the main engine of billionaire wealth. Companies borrow money to buy their own shares, the stock pops, execs cash out, and workers get layoffs. The Economic Policy Institute tracked how buybacks exploded after the 2017 tax cuts while wages barely moved: EPI on buybacks. It's financialization in one chart. The fortune gets built by shrinking the share count, not by making better products. If we want fewer billionaires, I'd start by making buybacks manipulation again.
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