News and notes from around the interweb:
- U.S. considers airline wastewater testing as COVID surges in China There’s not a huge reason not to do this, we should be doing far more genomic surveillance than we do. But continue to ‘consider this’ rather than actually doing it means we’re missing the variants that are the whole idea of the project in the first place, and it’s strange that we think of variants as something that come here from other places rather than evolving or co-evolving right here, as Covid continues to spread largely unchecked.
- But why would I want to actually drink this?
- For you folks who keep claiming that share buybacks are some nefarious scheme to raise stock price, in the aftermath of the Southwest Airlines debacle, how about actual research?
The average repurchase in our sample, 0.30% of outstanding shares within a month, increases the stock price by 40 to 70 basis points relative to the non-repurchased class of stock. The effect dissipates completely over the subsequent month unless extended by continued repurchases. This small, short-lived price effect leaves little scope for CEOs to benefit from value-destroying repurchases motivated by self-interest.
- Teacher stuck in airport texts phone numbers on luggage to reunite travelers with missing bags (HT: @crucker)
- Those legacy US Airways Airbus A320s are the gift that keeps on giving.
First class accommodations @AmericanAir #HappyNewYear Duct Tape? FL 1914 pic.twitter.com/umhAgo8UOa
— david (@1stStateTarHeel) December 31, 2022
- Oh my.
You should be sorry. This is your American staff in St Thomas taking selfies and saying “i hate American” while we were delayed, boarded, deplaned and ultimately kicked out. They were rude and non communicative over what next steps were. Unacceptable. pic.twitter.com/yY5gjoIVcX
— Caroline Trawick (@CarolineTrawick) December 31, 2022
@ Gary — With that pice of metal sticking out, I certainly hope that the seat behind was out of service.
Gary, the more important thing is
WHY do companies buy back stock?
You mentioned “returning money to shareholders” but if shareholders needed money they could sell on the open market. If the shareholders got dividens then they would have money and still have their stock. Is it a tax thing?
the problem with stock buybacks is cheating taxes. companies are supposed to return profits that can’t be productively reinvested into the business back to shareholders in the form of dvidends, taked at ordinary income tax rates up to 37%. stock buybacks eliminate dividends & higher rates of taxation in favor or unrealized capital gains & ultimately lower capital gains tax rates.
Man I miss those old AA Mad Dogs.
The dirty trick about buying your own stock is how it’s treated accounting-wise. Of course a company can buy shares in anything including itself. These shares, including its own shares, should then all appear on the balance sheet as Stocks & Shares. And in bad times, when this company lines up for a government handout the taxpayer can point to these assets on the balance sheet – which they could sell to raise cash.
But that’s not how it works. After buying back your own shares they miraculously disappear from the balance sheet. And the company looks broke again when it comes time to pay tax, and more so when they ask for a handout. For example, taxpayers were forced to give certain swindlers $7bn without ever asking them to sell the $5.6bn of stocks which they had bought back from their own shareholders.
Gary – You’re so driven to debunk the buyback topic. Could you offer a rebuttal to the Qtards that say the meltdown was the product of terminating unvaccinated staff?
DaninMCI : ME TOO! STUPID on AA to retire them.
The study in the post only looks at the 30-day effect of buybacks. But if buybacks are really a measure to boost earnings per share, wouldn’t we have to look at results after the close of the first full quarter after the buyback? Only then would we see a reflection in the EPS and/or P/E.
Let’s see, condensate from air conditioning units = Legionnaires’ disease?
No Thank You!
SO_CAL_RETAIL_SLUT
The AA Mad Dogs had great leg room but the seat cushions were terribly worn out.
AA and UA should just retire their A320s. They both didn’t order MAX8s for nothing. This move will make it easier for both airlines to achieve a consistent cabin: AA will not have to spend as much resources on Project Oasis and UA will not have to spend much on NEXTifying aging planes.
Furthermore….
Isn’t the argument that stock buybacks are a questionable use of company cash, vs reinvesting on IT/infrastructure? Whether or not they’re actually effective in raising the stock price is irrelevant—the fact is that it is how the company spent that money.
The A320 has 5 good seats on the whole plane. The first exit row.
Is there any intelligent person left?
Time to break up American. Its too large. Same thing for UA, DL. All to large.
So what is the worst aircraft in the AA Fleet? The article NEVER answered that question!!!
I can promise you some well intended flight attendant placed duct tape on the tray after it broke, probably when inflight and then forgot to have it written up. A mechanic would had dismantled or done a better job taping in the event of not wanting to take a delay on such a small item and it would had been placarded.