Loading ...To what end does such a system lead, in which asset prices are driven so high that the businesses themselves are not profitable in the real economy? It’s called a Ponzi or pyramid system, in which profits are made not from the real economy but from the greater fool, the greater fool in aggregate being the savers. Which brings me back to these companies that should be going out of business but are instead ramping up production to service their debt and stay in business long enough for the insiders to get the hell out and pass on the greater losses to the savers.
This ties in to my next and final trending meme, which is corporate buybacks. The buyback meme is a true sign that we’re in the final Ponzi phase of this system, in my opinion. Buybacks are a way for corporate shells to fall on the grenade while the insiders get out. They are also a way to juice stock prices that would otherwise be falling.
I’ll get into this more in the next section, but if we look at specifically who is profiting from the most recent outrageous buyback trend, it is not the oil companies. Some companies are really profiting from the outrageous buybacks. From the top-ten list of buybackers, Apple is at the top and its stock is up 40% YoY. Others in the top ten are Cisco Systems, up 35% YoY. Oracle, up 20%. Intel, up 53%. Microsoft, up 30%. Wells Fargo up 27%, Home Depot up 30% and Pfizer up 6%. Exxon Mobil is third on the list, and it’s down 7%, which I read as it would have fallen harder than that if not for the buybacks which were to slow the decline giving the insiders time to GTFO.