Shareholder-Primacy

Jack Welch Becomes GE CEO, Launches 'Shareholder Value' Era and Mass Layoffs

1981-04-01 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 9/10

Jack Welch becomes CEO of General Electric at age 45 and delivers his landmark speech ‘Growing fast in a slow-growth economy’ in New York City, marking what is widely acknowledged as the ‘dawn of the shareholder value movement.’ Welch operationalizes Milton Friedman’s …

Jack Welch General Electric corporate-power wealth-extraction labor shareholder-primacy mass-layoffs

Milton Friedman's 'The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits' Establishes Shareholder Primacy Doctrine

1970-09-13 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 9/10

Economist Milton Friedman publishes his landmark essay ‘A Friedman Doctrine: The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Its Profits’ in The New York Times Magazine, establishing the intellectual foundation for shareholder primacy and profit maximization as the sole corporate …

Milton Friedman Chicago School economists corporate-power economic-policy wealth-extraction ideology shareholder-primacy