RECOMMENDED READING
3/25/2021
New Report: Most U.S. Companies Send Cash to Shareholders at Expense of Capital Base
12/6/2023
Issues 2024: Wall Street
4/15/2021
If We Can’t Agree on a Global Minimum, Abolish the Corporate Tax

Vast sums of money sloshing around the financial sector are enriching shareholders but producing little real-world value, according to a new analysis of business investment from American Compass, a conservative think tank.

The analysis by Oren Cass, a former senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a former adviser to Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, finds that much of the money that businesses once funneled into productivity-increasing assets — structures, equipment and intellectual property — is now being diverted to shareholders instead.

This pursuit of short-term payouts over long-term investment appears to be depressing economic growth, the report finds, exacerbating inequality and making it harder than ever for American workers and their families to get ahead.

Historically, profitable businesses return some of their excess earnings to shareholders and invest much of the rest back into the company in the form of new machines, new buildings and intellectual property. These so-called capital investments have traditionally been one of the drivers of economic growth.

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Recommended Reading
March 25, 2021
• American Compass
Financialization
New Report: Most U.S. Companies Send Cash to Shareholders at Expense of Capital Base

PRESS RELEASE—In an economic transformation over past 50 years, “Eroders” have overtaken “Sustainers,” according to a new report by American Compass executive director Oren Cass.

December 6, 2023
• American Compass
Financialization, Understanding America
Issues 2024: Wall Street

For the American economy to boom again, financial markets will have to return to their proper role promoting productive investment.

April 15, 2021
• Marshall Auerback
Globalization, Tax Policy
If We Can’t Agree on a Global Minimum, Abolish the Corporate Tax

It may come as a surprise to many readers that arguments about radically altering the concept of corporate taxation do not hail exclusively from right-wing libertarian think tanks.