The Profits-Investment Disconnect

The Profits-Investment Disconnect - NYTimes.com: "Profits are very high, so why are companies concluding that they should return cash to stockholders rather than use it to expand their businesses?

After all, we normally think of high profits as a signal: a profitable business is one people should be trying to get into. But right now we see a combination of high profits and sluggish investment :  What’s going on? ... this kind of divergence — in which high profits don’t signal high returns to investment — is what you’d expect if a lot of those profits reflect monopoly power rather than returns on capital." 'via Blog this'

Amazon’s Monopsony Is Not O.K. - Krugman

Amazon’s Monopsony Is Not O.K. - NYTimes.com: "The desirability of new technology, or even Amazon’s effective use of that technology, is not the issue. After all, John D. Rockefeller and his associates were pretty good at the oil business, too — but Standard Oil nonetheless had too much power, and public action to curb that power was essential.

And the same is true of Amazon today." 'via Blog this'