Tao Francis

speaker

430 appearances 7 recordings 1 series first heard Nov 2017 last heard Nov 2022

Tao Francis’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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WSJ Your Money Briefing · Corporate Profits Pop on Lower Tax Bills · 4 May 2018 podcast

It really is. matched

And at the same time, you're also seeing revenue grow. matched

So sales are growing. matched

They're just not growing as quickly as profits. matched

And there's a reason for that. matched

Part of it is this is the new tax policy. matched

Essentially, what you're seeing is that companies got a big enough tax cut that not only kept their taxes from growing much along with their free tax profits, it actually brought their taxes down below where it was previously. matched

in the same quarter a year ago. matched

That's right. matched

And exactly why isn't clear, despite a number of indicators suggesting that consumers have more money in their pockets, in part from the tax bill, despite the fact that wages are doing a little bit better. matched

You just haven't seen the same kind of consumer spending growth that I think a lot of advocates of the tax bill would have hoped. matched

Now, I think even some skeptics will point out that it's early days. matched

It does take time for the benefits of a tax cut to really kind of be felt, whether that's by a company that's deciding how to spend its tax savings. matched

whether on capital equipment or repurchasing shares, or whether it's by consumers who might wait a few quarters before they go out and spend. matched

That remains to be seen. matched

That's right. matched

What you're really seeing is companies starting to make a lot of announcements about things like dividends and buybacks. matched

And of course, Apple just announced an enormous buyback. matched

Buybacks are easy to announce quickly. matched

Boards simply need to make the decision that that's where they need to devote some capital. matched

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