Very important and little-discussed issues are covered in this segment about Tepper’s new book. Anti-trust breakups are coming for monopolies in many sectors, along with new regulations banning or greatly restricting share buybacks as the destructive market manipulation and balance sheet degradation that it is. A brighter future requires more competitive policies that support the building of strong balance sheets and sustainable business models, not short-term financial gimmicks.
Jonathan Tepper is the author of ‘The Myth of Capitalism,’ about how a handful of powerful companies have come to dominate key industries and many of our lives. He joins @JChatterleyCNN on @FirstMove to argue the case for more competition and free markets. pic.twitter.com/WwLm47Nh8C
— CNN Business (@CNNBusiness) November 19, 2018
On a related note, private equity firms KKR, and Bain Capital have agreed to pay $20m to workers who lost their jobs in the Toys R Us bankruptcy. The move follows a months-long campaign in which former employees pressured some of America’s largest state pension funds to cut off investment in firms connected to the doomed buyout of the retailer.
This is a positive development because it connects the parasitical behaviours of financiers that pick a business clean of cash and income and bury it in debt to fund payouts to shareholders at the expense of a company’s long-term viability and pension obligations to employees. As with Sears and many other companies, extractive financial gimmicks are the death knell for productive investment, economic strength and social stability.
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