Debt load and Distress: When Tesla chose to add to its debt burden by borrowing $5 billion in 2017, I argued that there was no good reason for Tesla to borrow money, since money losing companies gain no tax benefits and debt put growth potential at risk. The ultimate measure of how comfortable investors feel about risk is whether they are putting money into unique boutique s or taking them out and fund flows have historically been a good measure of that comfort. A Return to the Past: Since the business roundtable is composed of CEOs, many of whom have felt the heat of activist investors and pushy shareholders, the cynic in you may lead you to conclude that what the CEOs in the Roundtable would like to see is a return to the good old days of managerial corporatism, where they could rule their companies with little push back, and that this push for stakeholder interests is a diversionary tactic. Note that the CEOs who are in the Roundtable represent the status quo, large and established companies, many of which find their business models being disrupted by young, start-ups.

CEOs have noticed, and the Business Roundtable’s statement may be just a restatement of constrained corporatism. One way to preempt disruption is to increase the costs of doing business and having to take care of all stakeholders does that, but it is a cost that established companies may be able to bear better right now than their disruptive competitors. It can be done by reading a little about the particular stock on which you want to do business. As I noted earlier, if we want companies to behave better in their interactions with society, customers and employees, we have to make it in their financial best interests to do so, buying products and services from companies that treat other stakeholders better and paying higher prices for their shares. The Rest: This being Tesla, there were the weekly distractions as Musk muddied the waters with talk of electric leaf blowers and insurance products.