Easy Loans Financed Dividends

"From the fourth quarter of 2004 through the third quarter of 2008, the companies in the S.& P. 500 — generally the largest companies in the country — reported net earnings of $2.4 trillion. They paid $900 billion in dividends, but they also repurchased $1.7 trillion in shares.

As a group, shareholders were paid about $200 billion more than their companies earned over that four-year period. Suffering investors who held onto their shares during the 2008 plunge may want to reflect on the fact that investors who were dumping shares got roughly twice as much of the money as the loyal holders did."

Beyond divvies and stock buybacks, "easy loans" financed overpriced mergers and acquisitions, too. Just more examples of how excess money (credit) was burning holes in the pockets of CEOs and other "corporate stewards."