Weekend Reading: $7 Trillion To Manipulate Prices
As the stock market continues to press new highs, the level of optimism climbs with it. I discussed yesterday Richard Thaler’s, a recent recipient of the Nobel Price in Economics, comments about not understanding the current “irrationality of investors relating to their investing behavior.”
株式市場は新高値を続けており、楽観論が支配的になっている。私は昨日の記事でも議論したが、Richard Thalers、彼は最近ノーベル経済学賞を受けた、彼は最近の「投資家の非合理な行動を理解できない」ということだ。
What is interesting is that Thaler’s received his Nobel Prize for his pioneering work in establishing that people are predictably irrational — that they consistently behave in ways that defy economic theory. For example, people will refuse to pay more for an umbrella during a rainstorm; they will use the savings from lower gas prices to buy premium gasoline; they will offer to buy a coffee mug for $3 and refuse to sell it for $6.
おもしろいことに、Thalerがノーベル賞を受けた業績は、人が非合理行動をするという先駆的な研究テーマだったーー人々はいつも経済理論を無視して行動する。たとえば、大雨のときには人は傘に多額を支払おうとしない;人はガソリン価格が下がるとプレミアムガソリンを買おうとする;コーヒーカップを$3で買おうとするが$6では売ろうとしない。
The fact that a man who studies the “irrationality of individuals” is stumped by current investor behavior should be alarming at the least.
「個人の非合理性」を研究した人が現在の投資行動は警告を発していると困惑しているのが事実だ。
But as earnings season gets underway we once again return to quarterly Wall Street “beat the estimate game,” in which companies are rewarded by beating continually lowered estimates. Of course, the primary catalyst used to beat those estimates was not a rise in actual revenue, or even reported earnings, but rather ongoing accounting gimmickry and stock buybacks. As shown below, through the second quarter of this year, reported EPS, which includes “all the bad stuff,” actually declined in the latest quarter and has remained virtually unchanged since 2014. (But, even that is an illusion as shares have been aggressively bought back in order to sustain that same level of EPS.)
しかし四半期決算を迎えて我々は再びWall Streetの「予想を上回るかどうかというゲーム」に巻き込まれる、いつも低めに設定された予想を上回った企業はご褒美を受ける。当然ながら、この予想を上回るという最初のキッカケは実際の売上が増えるとか利益が増えるということではない、そうではなく、自社株買いという会計上のゴマカシによるものだ。下のチャートで示すが、今年Q2に報告されたEPS、これは「すべての銘柄を考慮しているが」最新四半期で少し減っている、2014年以来殆ど変わっていない。(しかし、これは幻想にすぎない、自社株買いで同じレベルのEPSが保たれているだけだ。)
The
difference between reported earnings with and without the benefit of
share repurchases is substantial. The chart below shows the net
difference between gross reported earnings with and without the buyback
impact. Importantly, the net effect of buybacks is having less impact which, as was the case in 2007, was a precursor to the crash.
報告される収益と自社株買いが無いときとの差が本質的なものだ。下のチャートに示すのは、自社株買いをしないときとした時の差を示している。大切なことは、2007年と同様に自社株買いの効果が薄れたときには暴落の前兆となる。
Ralph Nader just recently did an in-depth expose on the problems with share repurchases. To wit:
Ralph Naderが最近深く調べた、自社株買いが引き起こす問題についてだ。見てみよう:
“The monster of economic waste—over $7 trillion of dictated stock buybacks since 2003 by the self-enriching CEOs of large corporations—started with a little-noticed change in 1982 by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under President Ronald Reagan. That was when SEC Chairman John Shad, a former Wall Street CEO, redefined unlawful ‘stock manipulation’ to exclude stock buybacks.”
「巨大な経済廃棄物ーー大企業では2003年以来$7Tを超える自社株買いが実行されているーー1982年にほとんど知らされること無く始まった、始まりはロナルド・レーガン時代のSECのもとでだ。当時のSEC議長はJohn Shadで元Wall StreetのCEOだ、それまで非合法だった「株式操作」を見直し自社株買いを例外とした。
Yep, stock buybacks used to be considered stock manipulation, yet today, it is widely accepted by investors as “just the right measure to boost earnings in the ongoing “beat the estimate” game.
そう、自社株買いはかつては市場操作とみなされていた、しかし今日では、広く投資家に受け入れられている、「予想を上回る」ゲームのなかで利益を増やす正当な手法として。
As Ralph Nader points out – there is a problem.
Ralph Naderはこう指摘するーーそこに問題がある。
“The stock buyback mania was unleashed. Its core was not to benefit shareholders (other than perhaps hedge fund speculators) by improving the earnings per share ratio. Its real motivation was to increase CEO pay no matter how badly such burning out of shareholder dollars hurt the company, its workers and the overall pace of economic growth.“
「自社株買いが大流行となった。その核心は株主の利益ではない(そうではなくヘッジファンドの投機筋の利益だ)一株あたりの利益を改善するにすぎない。本当の動機は株主資産を毀損してもCEOの給与を増やすことだ、株主資産を既存して会社も従業員もさらに経済全体に悪影響を与えてもだ。」
The bottom line is that while companies take trillions of dollars and buyback shares, it only benefits the executives of the company at the expense of both workers and, ultimately, shareholders as companies with excessive stock buybacks experience a declining market value.
要約すると、企業はトリリオンドルの自社株買いで利益を得ているのは役員たちで、従業員や株主の利益を損ねている、過剰な自社株買いで企業価値を損ねている。
The interview is worth watching, and read the article, and think about it.
彼のインタビューは一見の価値がある、そして記事も読むが良い、考えてみることだ。
Here’s your reading list to for the weekend.
今週末はこれを読もうと思う。
Trump, Economy & Fed
- 5-Reasons Trump Will & Won’t Fire Yellen by Caroline Baum via MarketWatch
- Economic Growth Really Matters by Simon Constable via Forbes
- Market’s Got It All Wrong by James Rickards via Daily Reckoning
- Richard Thaler: Nobel Winner by Binyamin Appelbaum via NYT
- Trump Finally Learns What SALT Is by Tyler Durden via Zero Hedge
- Link Between Tax Cuts & Growth Is Tenuous by Kate Davidson via WSJ
- Trump Tax Plan An Atrocity by Larry Summers via The Washington Post
- Deja Voodoo by Joseph Stiglitz via Project Syndicate
- Why Tax Cuts Won’t Create Jobs by Marcus Ryu via NYT
- Cohn & Mnuchin Risk Their Reputations by David Leonhardt via NYT
- The GOP Has No Budget Plan by James Capretta via Real Clear Policy
- The Long Road Ahead To Tax Reform by Betsy McCaughey via NY Post
- 3-Scenarios For The Global Economy by Nouriel Roubini via Project Syndicate
- Unemployment Drop Had Nothing To Do With Harvey by John Crudele via New York Post
- Detail On Who Pays What In Taxes via RIA
Markets
- Bear Market Closer With Each New High by Michael Sincere via MarketWatch
- JFK Sr. Used This Trick To Spot Market Bubbles by Jody Chudley via Daily Reckoning
- What If High Stock Value Revert? by Haghani & White via Bloomberg
- Putting Risk On A Budget by Patrick Nolan, CFA via BlackRock
- Is This The Melt-Up Before The Melt-Down by Mark DeCambre via MarketWatch
- The Are No Bears Left…Not One by Kevin Muir via The Macro Tourist
- The Permian Boom Is Coming To An End by Nick Cunningham via OilPrice.com
- The Hysteria Of An Overbought Market by Michael Kahn via Barron’s
- Newsletter Challenges Us To Re-Examine Investing by Mark Hulbert via MarketWatch
- The Many Virtues Of Simplicity by David Merkel via Aleph Blog
- Maximum Optimism Should Have You Worried by Joe Calhoun via Alhambra Partners
- Kass: Probability Of A Flash Crash Grows Exponentially by Tyler Durden via ZeroHedge
- What NOT To Buy In Today’s Market by Vitaliy Katsenelson via RIA
- The Dangers Of “Get It While You Can” Mentality by Doug Kass via RIA
- Working Off The Froth by Liz Ann Sonders via Charles Schwab
Research / Interesting Reads
- Is Bridgewater A Fraud? by Tyler Durden via Zero Hedge
- The Economist Who Realized How Crazy We Are by Michael Lewis via Bloomberg
- 4-Fundamental Skills Of All Investing by Morgan Housel via Collaborative Fund
- Risk: Preparing Clients For An Uncertain Journey by Shane Shepherd via Research Affiliates
- It Doesn’t Pay To Chase Returns by Jason Zweig via The Intelligent Investor
- Your Pension Is A Lie! by John Mauldin via Mauldin Economics
- Nobody Knows What Will Happen by Geisinger & Dittli via Finanz Und Wirtschaft
- NO! Valuations Are NOT Justified By Low Rates by John Hussman via Hussman Funds
- Can Stocks Avoid Unlucky (Year) 7 by Dana Lyons via The Lyons Share
- Popularity Of “Passive” Preludes Pleasant Outcome by Jesse Felder via The Felder Report
“Making it, and keeping it, are two different things.“ – Anonymous
「一時的な成功と、それを続けるのは別物だ」ーー詠み人知らず