Republicans have attacked House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for saying the small bonuses that an even smaller number of Americans have received are "crumbs," but what else could you call it when compared to what the richest Americans have received?
The Wall Street Journal reports that American companies have now spent $200 billion pumping up the price of their own stocks.
Share buybacks announced by large U.S. companies have exceeded $200 billion in the past three months, more than double the prior year, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data for S&P 500 companies.
Among the biggest: Cisco Systems Inc. at $25 billion, Wells Fargo & Co. at about $21 billion, PepsiCo Inc. at $15 billion, AbbVie Inc. and Amgen Inc. at $10 billion apiece, and Alphabet Inc. at $8.6 billion.
American companies are expected to spend at least $500 billion on buybacks this year according to the Wall Street Journal citing analysis from Goldman Sachs.
I'm not an expert so I'll defer to their analysis, but I will say if companies have already spent $200 billion by the first of March, $500 billion may be too small a figure.
What we can say with absolute certainty is that average employees and workers are not going to see more than few percentage points of any of it. Unless you are a rich shareholder, you have been hoodwinked.