'''Chart- Airlines stock buybacks since 2012'''
Stockman: The Crony Capitalist Thieves Are Back
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/stockman-crony-capitalist-thieves-are-back
"If the Big Four Airlines can’t raise enough cash in the high cost long term debt markets or by issuing highly dilutive preferred stock or equity, there is only one solution – and that is chapter 11. Holy moly, that’s why we have this legal protection procedure.
The airlines will have precious little business for the duration of the great COVID spring break anyway. So let the court-appointed trustees operate with the same skeleton crews that the airlines will be running even if they get the bailout. The level of customer service and employment will be essentially the same in either case.
More importantly, let the gamblers and so-called investors who piled into these stocks get their just deserts. That is, a 100% loss on their gambling stakes because that’s all it ever was when the Big Four’s combined market cap hit $130 billion compared to just $43 billion now."
Even more importantly, let these bankrupt shareholders file class action suits against the idiots and clowns in the C-suites and on the boards of directors who made such foolish decisions in the first place. Hopefully, these cats would be legally stalked and harassed to the ends of the earth as an object lesson in the personal cost of imperiling corporate balance sheets to feather their own stock options nest.
"Of course, the airlines are only the poster boy for this long overdue moment of truth. The problem is universal because today’s rotten regime of Keynesian central banking has caused the entire financial system and main street economy to become riddled with rank speculation and reckless disregard for financial discipline and prudence.
Letter to Congress by the Airlines begging for money
Airline CEOs Issue Letter to Congress Urging Swift Action on Bipartisan Aid Package
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/airline-ceos-issue-letter-congress-163400208.html"