By Les Leopold
DID STOCK BUYBACKS KNOCK THE BOLTS OUT OF BOEING ??
O
n January 5th , a door plug blew out of the side of a Boeing 737 Max 9 plane flying for Alaska Airlines from Portland , Oregon , to Ontario , California . ( A door plug is a section of the plane ’ s fuselage bolted in to take the place of an optional emergency exit . It is meant to be an integral part of the plane ’ s body .) Miraculously , during the twenty minutes it took for the plane to circle back and land , no one was sucked out of the gaping hole . But for two decades leading up to the incident , wealth has been sucked out of the company via legalized stock manipulation to benefit Wall Street and Boeing CEOs .
Since 2013 , the Boeing Corporation initiated seven annual stock buybacks . Much of Boeing ’ s stock is owned by large investment firms , which demand the company buy back its shares . When Boeing makes repurchases , the price of its stock is jacked up , which is a quick and easy way to move money into the investment firms ’ purses . Boeing ’ s management also enjoys the boost in price , since nearly all of their executive compensation comes from stock incentives . When the stock goes up via repurchases , they get richer , even though Boeing isn ’ t making any more money .
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