Stock Buybacks are Eating our Lunch!

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According to The Atlantic, a new report finds that big companies could have given their workers thousands of dollars’ worth of raises with the money they spent on their own shares.

Questions:
1. Where is money pulled away from when companies use it to buy back stock?
2. Which industries were part of the study?
3. What does Federal Reserve data show about buy backs?
4. According to the article, how much could Lowe’s, CVS, and Home Depot could have provided each of their workers, if they didn’t use the money to buy back stock?
5. Some analysts argue that buybacks hurt corporate America, American workers, and American growth in a few ways. What are these ways?

Source:

Lowrey, A. (2018). Are Stock Buybacks Starving the Economy? Atlantic, July 31, (Retrievable online at https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/07/are-stock-buybacks-starving-the-economy/566387/)