Patriotic Millionaires: Billions Spent on Stock Buybacks Better Spent Raising Wages, Creating New Jobs

This morning, the House Financial Services Committee is holding a hearing examining the impact of record corporate stock buybacks on workers, investors, and the American economy. Ahead of the hearing, Morris Pearl, former managing director at Blackrock, Inc., and Chair of the Patriotic Millionaires, issued the following statement:

"Since the 2017 tax cuts went into effect, stock buybacks have shot up by 50 percent. American companies spent $811 billion buying back their own stock in 2018 alone, and that number is expected to go up this year. The biggest American companies are clearly making enough profit to spend these record amounts giving raises to their shareholders via stock buybacks, and yet average workers aren't getting any raises.

The plain truth is that spending corporate profits on raising worker wages and investing in new jobs, instead of spending it on stock buybacks that only serve to make rich investors even richer, will actually help all of those business people and investors make more money simply because workers will have more money to spend. Consumer spending is the backbone of our economy, and reinvesting record profits back into American workers is the best way of ensuring long-term economic prosperity. Spending billions on stock buybacks, instead of reinvesting that money where it's needed most, is a short-sighted, unsustainable decision to enrich shareholders."

For further comments or questions, please contact Fiona McCarthy at fiona@patrioticmillionaires.org.