up and well that's not happening like the markets are continuing to decline and where the share buybacks are they going to help us i think the rest of the markets are going to save investors well hasn't happened but so far over the first ten months companies bought back about three hundred fifty billion dollars of their own shares an average of thirty five billion dollars a month but the really important thing here is he looks at i.b.m. in particular and what i.b.m. has done to the fortunes of their company through share buybacks that share buybacks are pushed on to these companies as investors want them buy shares bought back do it do it do it do it's going to help us well in fact let's take a gander at international business machines i.b.m. one of the biggest share buyback queens since two thousand it blew one hundred forty six billion dollars on share buybacks the chart below shows the cumulative amount since two thousand and thirteen that i.b.m. wasted on share buybacks forty three billion in six years so as you see it's going

up so you had thought that would be good for i.b.m. that they're buying back so many shares because this is what you hear on c n b c and bloomberg that it's really great for investors if they're buying back their shares well in fact wall street gurus keep hyping the share buybacks on large shareholder value or return cash to shareholders or some other such thing but here is where i.b.m. share buybacks did to shareholder value as measured by the stock down forty six percent since two thousand and thirteen so in fact it has not helped investors really long term investors it's helped insiders at the company with their stock options and it has destroyed the company well share buybacks up until recently was illegal is completely illegal why because it's accounting fraud in one way i mean by the. companies right. dollar per share in earnings

if in fact they start buying back their shares that dollar is divided over less shares and it looks like the company's earning potential in earning power is higher than it actually is and because so many corporations are involved in so much so much of the stock buyback you have a stock market trading on the top line or by c. and b. c. reporting seventeen times earnings but if you adjust for the stock repurchase programs and you eliminate the accounting fraud of stock buybacks the market is trading at the highest multiple of earnings ever probably one hundred fifty years probably closer to forty times earnings at those nosebleed levels stocks generally crash number one number two. putting money into stock buybacks means you're not investing in the company you're not investing in cap ex you're not investing in marketing you're not investing in hiring people you're not investing in technology

so that's a complete waste of money i.b.m. and eventually people say you know what i.b.m. is never going to make any money because they've blown it all on this a legal stock repurchase program or above what was a big investor i.b.m. going to be pulled out because they realize like i'm more involved than i can even subscribe to this fraud this i.b.m. fraud even though the executives are basically extracting hundreds of millions of dollars billions of dollars from the economy from the stock market putting in their pocket and running to switzerland opening up a big account get a swiss chalet leave americans on the street open definition we don't care we're executives exactly so well see it says something similar in terms of what they could have done with one hundred forty six billion dollars extracted from the company over those years in fact i.b.m. could have spent this money on research and invented something cool but that would have been too hard far better to farm out much of the work to cheap countries like india shut down u.s. operations waste money. and share buybacks in

a vain effort to manipulate up its shares and instead watch them go to heck so they're not reinvesting in the company they're not reinvesting in the future a lot of corporations across the world are doing this in fact g.e. is basically on the verge of bankruptcy because they've spent two hundred fifty billion dollars and share buybacks over the past few years propping up their shares the company continues i think it's down over fifty percent this year alone and g.e. and and yet like. part of the reason is g.e. has basically an oligarch with two other companies including siemens in the gas turbine market so they control the market and therefore they don't have to compete like i do like a bakery and every day the guy who's in charge of the bakery opens up the shop and it's all the donuts and it's all the bread and then that damn of the day he said look we made a lot of money because we sold out of all of our donuts and bread but it wasn't to customers it was to himself so stock buybacks are basically corporate you

know circling of money totally in a way that doesn't reflect the business they're not in the business of except for the business of fraud and this is rampant throughout the entire s. and p. five hundred and one stud day of reckoning comes as it seems to be happening now you could see it drop of the market down forty or fifty percent you know in a way can people be like oh my god what happened well it's been building for years because they're engaged in massive open accounting fraud most ordinary americans won't care about that it seems so esoteric and like why would i care about it but it does hollow out the economy over the long term maybe not the short term because it gives a boost the share prices for that day that the share buybacks are announced and they all cash out and short termism short termism but also there's monopoly power and this is becoming a bigger and bigger issue and finally economists from both the left and right are realizing how much it has harmed the u.s.

economy because remember so many economists at the federal reserve are stumped by why we have full employment in the u.s. and yet wages are so low and part of it is the monopsony power over labor that all these oleg aapl east across america whether it's in telecoms chicken farms in the midwest hollywood industry every industry is basically controlled by two to three meat major corporations in the pharmaceutical industry at c.v.s. and the on. one rite aid or whatever but here's a headline for what twenty twenty what we can look for. there pleading the hill dot com is pleading with progressive progressive can tackle the harm corporate consolidation is doing to our economy there's no exaggerating the role of power in the twenty first century economy from skyrocketing drug costs to the disparities we see today including the digital divide in a banking sector that excludes entire communities it's clear that our nation's market power problem has created an economic system that is not working for americans so part of the reason is that basically policymakers are not making new

policy about antitrust and instead leaving it up to judges to determine antitrust law based on you know mega corporations have all the legal power and activists are trying to take them to court for to bust up their monopolies but the judges don't know anything about economies and what what would be good for the economy they just look at whoever gives whoever persuades the judge and it's going to be the corporation who has thirty five lawyers each making two thousand dollars an hour who is going to be able to persuade the judge so the judges keep on deciding and overruling even like when time warner just merged with the actual department of justice was against it but a federal judge ruled in favor for it because they had the lawyer is to convince them you know i like a copy of the u.s.

constitution and there's a concept in here about separation of powers which is a brilliant innovation in jurisprudence separates the baddest actors in the society from colluding getting together and creating monopolies that has broken down so this anti-constitutional anti-american so what you're describing there is just on a failure of regulations it's a it's a it's a constitutional offense. the constitution would require extreme. to be dealt with in the extreme possible way well in fact what has happened is that these powerful corporations who have formed. are able to extract more and more profits up until the one nine hundred eighty s. the basically the profit margin used to be eighteen percent in general across industry that they were able to the cost of producing the products including all the labor costs and blah blah blah and then they would charge eighteen percent more and now it's about sixty seven percent so they're getting more and more money

therefore buying more and more politicians politicians don't therefore want to engage in introducing updated legislation the last time we had policy makers do any antitrust law was back during the roosevelt era so we have the sherman act in the clayton act and those are long time ago so there's been no updated ones that you know these huge corporations have provided have given themselves a whole bunch of loopholes they found all the loopholes in the past seventy eighty years to get around all of the democracy was working properly these politicians would put themselves up on e bay so like chuck schumer would just auction them so far off like a hundred thousand dollars or get chuck schumer to do your bidding as a corporation great nancy pelosi just put yourself on e bay be honest about your the now and see. your up for grabs you know you go to the highest bidder that's the democracy in america it's ruled by dollars in law that came out recently told to put money into politics to which i can't remember

the name of it but it's all happening and i'll go into that monopsony thing in the last minute here because he they mentioned that the increasingly concentrated power that employers use to shape the broader labor market to their own advantage known as labor market monopsony is one major problem that regulators have failed to address the federal trade commission and department of justice have focused so squarely on how anti-competitive behavior affects consumers that they have overlooked how it drives lower wages limited worker mobility and less on cipro. herships so what i'm saying is that these sort of issues are really important for the ordinary voter to look at rather than all these social and cultural issues that become the primary. you know sort of election sort of issues when they don't matter in the long run to the health of your entire family and community yeah you know the opposite of that of course would be a union pay unions what about unions i mean we're going to take a breath flush are coming away away go

. been twenty forty you know bloody revolution here to correct the demonstrations going from being relatively peaceful political protests to be creasing the violent revolution is always spontaneous or is it just the war here i mean your list put video in the. school and needle the former ukrainian president recalls the events of twenty fourteen. of those who took part in it invested over five billion dollars to assist ukraine in these and other goals that will ensure a secure and prosperous and democratic.

during the past thirty years lebanon has been subject to six invasions from israel . six invasions at practically every every five years we are having. one that's and this is definitely the kind of thing to help leverage. such.

welcome back to the kaiser report on mass keyser time now to go to london and speak with ross ashcroft renegade inc ross welcome to the kaiser report. well thank you guys are all right ross we've been talking about stuff for a long time and comparing notes on a lot of different and it's time now to talk about brags it and looks like what many folks have predicted it would be kind of a mess. give us a bit of an update but it is it's a total mess and what we're seeing is it's a bit. of any kind of leadership the political leadership whether it be to be able to negotiate a little bit worrisome siri an hour earlier be. silly and now thinking well

actually it was the right choice insofar as if i don't know the negotiations have been this badly there's no way other plan for it so we have here or not it is a total impasse total mess and we also see it as a prime minister who doesn't listens ironically home yes or music without an undertone to a script that is determined to do things on her own terms so she's covering your school. not anybody of course she's there and trying to shock the cabinet the cabinet it's amazing very hasty decisions only the u.k. and its relationship with your what was interesting there may from the very beginning you had two different schools of thought you had the people who were saying well you know we like to be sovereign and we want to be separate and we want to make our own trade deals and then there was another camp of people that i put myself in that

other camp who said wait a minute just look at the economics the economics are trust us and you're going to suffer a catastrophic g.d.p. collapse and by the way that argument doesn't hold any weight with people i spoke to the british people i spoke to i would say are you prepared to suffer a catastrophic e.g.d. collapse and everyone i spoke to said yeah it's worth it it's worth a. it's worth it for self sovereignty but now as you get closer to the precipice and it looks like a catastrophic g.d.p. collapse people are saying wait a minute i don't really vote for that but let's just talk about the economics for a second ross because we like to focus on the numbers here they are a separation from the largest trading block in the world and the no longer able to have your own currency in that trading block means that suddenly everything gets a lot more expensive and suddenly the economies of scale of being part of the largest trading block collapses and it caught the economics of this are terrible

ross what are your thoughts firstly i think that a lot of people who are not there yet if we come right back to the economics of it a lot of people in the u.k. have seen as you know where it's wage stagnation for a long silence so when david cameron who incidentally is now. the monster all this is now sitting in a shop somewhere i don't know local church on the right is memoirs and spend a minute in the way that gives him an out of this what he called this referendum a lot of people took that as an opportunity to blow the nose of the establishment so when you talk about economics if you're talking about people who go out there lawless ship day in day out those will this is all going to put you at sea we've been oppressed the solo this all of which is it's a blow you going to as a record elite and that's what they chose to do i think it's starting to. come home the new people started to realize that it's true ramifications but again it

bizarrely i think emotionally people are thinking well actually i don't track i just want something different and this this is different then so be it let's see what happens. well i remember having a conversation on the heights of us one on one during a song breaks at disaster and he cannot accept. excite one logical example of why this made economic sense he just kept pushing the the emotive argument as you put it and it just looks like one man ego centric drive for attention nigel frogs and he's willing to kill the british economy and destroy britain for his own ego ross. you know or you know go down some people go down as one of the most successful politicians other people put it down is that most of most or all of our time. if you can't answer the economic argument then your political argument falls apart

which is exactly what's happening across the u.k. in fact across many developed economies now so. i do think history will judge nigel i think you are judging truthfully by not really very kindly he enjoys publicity as we know where his economic credentials. i'm not sure but east made a very emotive case and a lot of people listened and both said because of the salute chest beating and heart on the sleeve. british won't that he and he's a bloke to me that that doesn't always make good economic sense. all right so let's talk about some of the specific strasser many big banks are threaten the level and sense of pranks and thout. is that all takara when they actually leave and one of the what consequences of this for us well but is always threatened if

any kind of economic argument goes against them back is always threatened to leave . the madness if you like and a lot of people say we're going to leave us go try with the war and in a sense maybe we want to do have a case because a smaller financial sector in the u.k. would be a good thing we have a thing nickel of violence curse where since the big bang and i think that's a big bangs in the eighty's finance has basically absolutely consumed on it and apparently trickle down economics works well are the people of the tower hamlets which is adjacent to the city are going to circle down economics works most or try and. argue. in the country so a massive blow to financial sector isn't always good for the nation so a smaller financial sector bigger than if those bankers are going to go there to repay it's such

a sign that that's their business choice but overall not many says a bench at the bankers who want to live and get the british economy back from any speculative financial. speculative and financially german economy small stone wall manufacturing and in advance of an enemy and it grows the real economy and diminishes the financial side from it is a good. arite while we're talking about h.s.b.c. barclays lloyds royal bank of scotland the big four british banks as long as there's a drop of blood in the corpse these parasites these leeches will suck at dry. don't don't listen to the words me when was the last time you trusted a bank or one of our anyone we were violence watch what they do. and then also from a looking to be a stronger book oh and this might sound trite but it's very difficult five years

ago a very nice set up there are not your kids in school to go into though i will say by the way on we're off to mumbai unlikely to happen any time soon sir what's the action don't listen to much the word right how about house prices of course the one barometer that every british person checks every morning to see how they're to judge their own net worth and value in the world prices are falling at the moment well the price at exacerbate that we're. all responsible for a lot of things but the biggest. is that they're made every dinner party or social about in the u.k. basically. because as you say people link their self-worth to that house. plus he goes up a new level of floor and or mark normal wall if they were you know what i actually so because it's an odd sort of a problem as it is ridiculous without it's hopeful speculative house price mania in the sunset and house prices are going down and it's got very little if anything to

do with bricks the reason they're going down is that we have a credit bubble since two thousand and eight and then reflate it out to two thousand and eight which is the largest in human history if you think that a credit bubble that went out is a natural ots of the market condition you're either a politician a banker or living and lara so the reason house prices go down isn't because it wrecks it it's because we bought that deflation because the real common heart support the process anymore in an actual economy. is taking an absolute pounding and if you want to see that in real time. for instance articles look at stocks and shares that comes your look at all the shares and understand where this is headed but breaks it in this country is the. goal of rescue says and the reason that house prices ago that repeat is because of debt deflation it isn't because of bricks all

right fair enough now one thing that continues ross breaks that are no breaks at the austerity for those outside the may not know about this policy tell us about it what's going on there at the. very blunt that it is dressed as an academic decision and arguably the worst dancer and this trait recent history along with their son who was harmless and this mr george osborne and our government speculate a little decided to pick austerity as a political choice and that's it he point because everybody thinks that it's an economic choice that he uses this incredibly clever terminology which voters go for places if you're going to a credit card then you go to. down and down and householders understand that because that affects them every day and he also says things like you put a man in the roof whilst the sun is shining and labor for instance didn't do that and this stuck with services well that gave him a license to do is to impose austerity and it as

a political choice not an economic choice an austerity really does is when it is nice. it takes money out of the economy and as a political choice it really is to prom so i would say that it's all about class war so instead of making people who caused the crisis in the first place the speculation for their well decided to do was put the nomic process you know a process at the door of the people who could use it for that namely working class younger. immigrants out of those people who can least afford it and that was a class war choice and the second second which is also incredibly helpful city on to sector is that austerity tamiko back to productize action where you just saw the public access phones use and show the public how incredibly. solder

council is and such does arad industry pat and then what you do is you take an asset and threatens of the private sector and this is a classic trip and austerity has basically license that basically austerity taking money out of the economy instead of musing money and so it's a growing economy it's got productive our economy and generic exception moving again crazy bits of the economy not speculative bets like house. house prices and this as a sending money out of the economy and then saying well you know it's inevitable we have to do this because they use the. also budget another g.p. so you pay down debt when actually that analogy doesn't hold water right now the un special rapporteur tour is going to visit the u.k. look at the human rights issues surrounding austerity they came to the us and found

an appalling situation from san francisco to the deep south and now they're on the way to the core to the k. what they think they can of the sea expect to say so you are all right the worry about what's going on in the in the. inequality we are inequality and the people are going to least of all it's also thirty other people exactly the people who will get an austerity is a great society in this country and the press strangely don't cover nearly enough so the u.n. needs when somebody is right what they do is i'll just give you one stat on this that since there's been an eighty percent increase since two thousand a low level of children in temporary accommodation and that figure at the moment is over one hundred thirty thousand if you're telling me that that is a sign of healthy economy or a healthy country or a healthy political sonora well you need out. on the couch report that's going to

do it for this episode of the kaiser report with me max kaiser stay sarat like i guess ross ashcraft of the renegade think if you like to get a touch tweet us a kaiser report. ministries police forces and city administrations of many countries depend on one corporation and another by michael semple one of the forgotten for for the eyes of god a. bumpus adama's got a gun to drop woods as that somebody got into the city at the last also bribing them proprietary software you don't know the source code isn't that a such a security risk when you have a black box operating in the public eye to microsoft's dependency puts governments

under a cyber threat and not only that some seem to think off message boards also get more on the net that's what we call softness of the offensive zone itself and this is also the only one of the more open to looking through most of the people in this field borden's all of those the small things this is the arsenals that often started on with the old version stopping there was a steel mills in front is up and describes on the fly and. what politicians do. they put themselves on a lot. to get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president. or somehow want to. have to go right to be close to see what the forty three of them or can't be good for i'm interested always in the waters of knowledge.

there should. it's been seventy years since the united nations adopted the universal declaration on human rights but in many places it remains a declaration and not a reality how to bridge the divide between practice and preaching. and there's no way of building around prick fear and no one to know why is this terrorist bomb bomb bomb but there are bad memories of all. twenty four years ago this country saw a real world. after the genocide.

killed a woman to fix the broken. insults and put aside after a twitterer hour over a move to european army as the french president warmly welcomed song from paris for the centenary commemorations of the first world war. more divisions emerge in the u.s. this time over a video involving c.n.n. reporter jim acosta some claim the material was dumped in order to justify the bombing of the journalist from the white house. as outcry as saudi arabia post a tweet in support of yemeni children led the un warns tens of thousands die every year as a result of the bombing campaign. and the syrian army rescues over a dozen hot.