Davos Man has also embraced stock repurchases by publicly traded companies to limit his tax burden. Until the early 1980s, that practice was barred by regulators as a form of stock manipulation. Companies that wanted to shower goodies on shareholders had to distribute dividends—cash payments that recipients were forced to disclose as income, paying taxes accordingly. But Reagan entrusted the Securities and Exchange Commission to a longtime Wall Street executive, John Shad. He legalized the practice13, opening the way for share buybacks. That gave executives a way to lift share prices while
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