One thing that constantly surprises me is how many people believe that maximizing shareholder value is some sort of legal or moral obligation, not an ideological convenience made up out of whole cloth by an economist in the 70s. What's elided in this article is that Jack Welch called it “the dumbest idea in the world.”
https://www.marketplace.org/2022/04/25/how-shareholders-jumped-to-first-in-line-for-profits-rerun/
The real magic of "maximizing shareholder value" is that it absolutely nails the modern trifecta of memetic capitalism, which is unfortunately what most of economics boils down to: it's an easy thing to measure, it's an easy story to repeat, and it's useful to the already powerful that people keep measuring and repeating it.
How incredibly freeing it must be! A mantra that lets you escape the complexity of a modern organization, and think nothing more than "this number should go up"?
@mhoye Obligatory KRAZAM clip.
This obsession with value creation is everywhere as if it was the ultimate measure of our lives.
mhoye
Gabriele Svelto [moved]
enthraxxx