Even if you don't buy into the fairness argument for growth across the entire economic spectrum, Hanauer articulates why the right-wing approach that enables extortionists like Harry Wilson and Carl Icahn to extract all the value from the economy into their own pockets is just fundamentally bad economics.

Column: The biggest scam bankrupting business and the middle class
Corporate profits, as a percent of GDP, have doubled in the past 40 years. But where’s that money going? Not to hiring, paying higher wages or investing in equipment. Corporations are instead using their profits to further reward shareholders. And that strategy, argues billionaire investor Nick Hanauer, is killing America’s economic growth.