Source: The American Prospect
by Harold Meyerson
“The American economy has reached the point where rising stock prices don’t actually reflect people themselves buying stock. As a recent report in The Wall Street Journal documented, a Bank of America survey of its individual and institutional investor clients reveals that they have been selling off more shares than they’ve been buying since the start of the year, to the tune of $25.3 billion. The only reason stock prices have risen at all is reflected in the bank’s findings about two other groups of its clients: hedge funds, which have purchased about $4 billion more than they’ve sold, and corporations, which have bought back roughly $30 billion of their own shares. The S&P 500’s 8 percent increase this year, then, doesn’t mean that mom and pop, or even mom and pop’s pension fund, are flocking to the market. … Nice work if you can get it.” (05/25/23)
https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2023-05-25-bill-that-would-stop-buybacks/