Investing - Corporations buy back stock instead of investing in workers or R and D.

In sum, America’s leading corporations control a huge sum of money that they’re unlikely to spend on the machinery, wage increases and new ventures that might return the nation’s economy to something resembling health. Since these companies move their profits abroad to avoid U.S. taxes, a truly satisfactory resolution to this problem probably requires a higher level of transnational governmental coordination than is plausible—though the U.S. might consider stiffening and extending its sanctions on tax havens like the Cayman Islands to more mainstream tax havens like Ireland. It should certainly raise the taxes on capital—that is, on capital gains and dividends—to levels comparable to or, better yet, higher than those on labor, since capital income is soaring while labor income isn’t going anywhere. Our governments—both the federal and the states’—should set up investment banks to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure. Minimum wage hikes and labor law reform are essential to restoring the nation’s consumer markets to a level of activity that would entice our reluctant investor corporations to actually expand production.

http://prospect.org/article/investing-stock-buybacks-not-people