ML-Implode News - Corporate America's buyback binge feeds investors, starves innovation

``In the most recent reporting year, share purchases reached a record $520 billion. Throw in the most recent year's $365 billion in dividends, and the total amount returned to shareholders reaches $885 billion, more than the companies' combined net income of $847 billion.
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Share repurchases are part of what economists describe as the increasing "financialization" of the U.S. corporate sector, whereby investment in financial instruments increasingly crowds out other types of investment.
... if those buybacks come at the expense of innovation, short-term gains in shareholder wealth could harm long-term competitiveness. "The U.S. is behind on production of everything from flat-panel TVs to semiconductors and solar photovoltaic cells," said Gary Pisano, a professor at Harvard Business School and author of "Producing Prosperity: Why America Needs a Manufacturing Renaissance."

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Corporate America's buyback binge feeds investors, starves innovation