I sometimes wonder if US competitiveness is going to be hampered as much by folks at the top building a business (good) and then extracting every dime they can get regardless of business outcomes (bad).

I worked for a profitable company years ago. But I guess it wasn't profitable enough? The CEO was supposedly asked to resign, they brought in a guy with a history of selling companies for parts (he of course said he wouldn't sell). Company sold to some foreign company within 2 years, it got held up by the feds for approval. The purchasing CEO went to the white house (first Trump administration) and met with Trump, approved that day, large swaths of the company layoffs announced that day too. Very shortly there after Trump's business org announced a bunch of real estate development plans in purchasing CEO's home country....

At some point getting your buddies payouts and so on seems to be a bigger incentive for a lot of big companies than others. Meanwhile those big companies crowd out smaller ones.

ultimate gangsta move. from threatening president(s) to bending rogue elites... Wow!