Read up on quarterly earnings reports. They go a long way to explaining the lack of investment in long term projects, and the laser like focus on managing share price.
Exactly this. So long as I add value to the shareholders I'm an f'n genius. War: 2900 layoffs, R&D department shuttered at Amgen Amgen to close Onyx Pharmaceuticals Amgen, bowing to hedge fund pressure, to cut 1100 more jobs Looks kind of like a stock in trouble, right? But check out this morning's Seeking Alpha: Amgen: Solid value with buyout potential Yay! You laid off 4500 people, shuttered your R&D campus and are struggling to stay alive but you're a "solid value!" Sustainable? Who gives a fuck about sustainable? P/E, baby, P/E! EBIDTA EBIDTA EBIDTA!
Not at all. Even Adam Smith thought the market needed to be regulated. Any time you see a concentration of wealth you will see negative effects for those without concentrated wealth. Unfortunately, the entire study of economics is one long riff of "don't hate the playa hate the game." And the whole discussion here is that productivity is a really poor metric to judge quality of life by. Those on the side of the worker are going to rally behind this and try and get more of the proletariat to vote. Those on the side of the owner are going to shovel money into campaigning so that the proletariat gets kept in its place. And that, my friend, is politics.
Campaigns so successful that they've got the proletariat funneling money into deluding itself.Those on the side of the owner are going to shovel money into campaigning so that the proletariat gets kept in its place.
Well, I know the political side of things pretty well. The only thing is long-term sustainability is more of a concern when referring to states. Business practices in no way translates well to state practices, but sadly political systems are rapidly morphing into businesses...
Amazon and Bezos are being punished by the stock market due to Bezos investing into the long term growth of the company rather than paying out dividends. article I love Amazon. They are one of few tech companies trying to fight back against the Quarterly report or fail mentality. They are also one of the few that are looking 5, 10 years down the road and building something. I think Google is doing that, as is Tesla.
Buy low, sell high, no past, no future. Let's say Amgen is 170 bucks a share. You buy 100 shares. Your investment is $17,000. Let's say Seeking Alpha publishes that "buy Amgen" article. Amgen is now $178 a share. (go check! Ticker is AMGN). Your investment is now worth $17,800. If you bought Amgen last night and sold it right now, at $8 per trade on eTrade, you just made $792. So that's one way. Let's also say that Amgen, as a company, is defunct. Amgen, as a slu of patents, is a valuable portfolio. Whoever buys the company will get their patents and "trim the fat" (IE, everyone who works at amgen). The owner of those patents gets all the profit and none of the overhead. So if you hold Amgen stock and Amgen is bought by a corporate raider intent on dismantling it, everyone is going to want some of that Amgen stock so that they get bought out. So that's another. Now - if you work at Amgen you get upside on the first and all downside on the second. But who gives a fuck about the people who actually make things? The market is all about the people who buy and sell the companies that make things.