Imagine our delight today when the Financial Review, after months of steadfastly ignoring what was happening with the Republican corporate tax cuts in the US, finally broached the issue today. Vesna Poljak provided us with an insight into the thinking of a bank strategist, Robert Buckland, who noted that there was an expectation that US companies “will invest the proceeds into new projects and job-boosting capacity improvements, bowing to the political mood in Washington”. But his view was that “it’s all very well giving CEOs cash but what you can’t necessarily control is how they spend it. I can’t help thinking that quite a lot of it will be handed to shareholders, through dividend increases or share buybacks.”

Finally, the Fin acknowledges the share buyback boom!

In fact, Buckland suggested certain “old world” companies would be discouraged from investing the windfall. “The market hates low-PE stocks doing lots of capex because the opportunity cost of not buying back your shares is so high.”

It’s not exactly a ringing endorsement of markets — or of the company tax cut argument — when they demand companies not invest tax windfalls, but instead hand it back to shareholders, is it?

And how is the share buyback spree going? The Wall Street Journal reports $158 billion in share buybacks in the first quarter of the year, “on pace for the biggest amount in any quarter, based on data going back to 1998.” Barron’s has joined the predictions of a share buyback record of $650 billion this year.

And how much of the company tax cut is finding its way into US wages? Well, the rate of US wages growth actually declined in April to just 2.6%. That means US workers had a 0.1% real wage fall. Oops, that doesn’t fit the narrative — it only seems like a couple of months ago outlets like the Financial Review were rejoicing in the wage rises and bonuses they claimed US companies were handing out.