Jay Clayton, Senior Policy Advisor and Of Counsel to Sullivan & Cromwell and former Chair of the SEC, appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box to discuss the Stock Buyback Accountability Act proposed by two U.S. senators, which would increase the tax on certain stock buybacks from 1 to 4 percent.
Jay commented that stock buy backs are an efficient means to reallocate capital across companies, the criticisms of stock buy backs do not hold up under scrutiny, and that this proposed law is misguided from a capital efficiency perspective. “The judgment of the board of directors and management has to be better on capital allocation than somebody from the outside,” Jay said.