Highly leveraged companies using tax cuts and in some cases, borrowing money, to purchase stock buybacks to inflate stock prices instead of capital investments or investments in people. Amazon seems to be the only large company that didn't participate in the ponzi.

This is from November:

https://wamu.org/story/19/11/21/sec-...tock-buybacks/

July:

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/29/buyb...se-stocks.html


"Over the past 12 months, nonfinancial companies have drained $272 billion in cash as part of the push to return still more money to shareholders. That represents a 15% decline and is the steepest drop since at least 1980, Kostin said.

At the same time, corporate leverage continues to rise as gross debt outstanding has climbed 8% over the past 12 months. That has come during a rough time for corporate profits, with S&P 500 earnings tracking for a 2.6% second-quarter decline, according to FactSet.

“Unless earnings growth accelerates materially, companies will likely continue to fund spending by drawing down cash balances and increasing leverage,” Kostin wrote."


So we had companies with dwindling profits increasing debts to buy stock to boost the stock price.