Weird how you blame Reagan, but the Speaker of the House in 1987 was one Jim Wright (D) of Texas, having followed Tip O’Neill (D) of Massachusetts that had held the position for the previous 10 years. Weirdly, Robert Byrd (D) of West Virginia of KKK fame was the majority leader in the Senate. Reagan must have really had some sort of mind control tricks to get get two democratic leaders, well seasoned in politics, to give him stock buybacks late during his second term.

I don’t disagree regarding the moral hazard of executive compensation and stock buybacks, but retreating to your priors (ie your ideological bent) to blame someone you don’t like is at best lazy and at worst intellectually dishonest. I would be much more interested in hearing ideas on how to entice executive talent without creating moral hazard for them to harm their own companies in order to line their own pockets.