Corporate bosses have run wild during the pandemic.
In 2020, with the economy reeling, chief executives of struggling companies got their boards to move bonus goal posts and hand out “retention” awards to protect their fat paychecks while their workers lost jobs, income, and lives.
In 2021, as consumers struggled with rising costs, executives celebrated rising corporate profits with a buyback spree. This legal form of stock manipulation artificially inflates the value of a company’s shares—and the value of executives’ stock-based pay.
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