> Look how richly rewarded AMZN is for long term choices. Yes, Bezos made it clear that he was going to reinvest all profits for a long time. Although obvious

> Look how richly rewarded AMZN is for long term choices. Yes, Bezos made it clear that he was going to reinvest all profits for a long time. Although obviously some people thought this was a great strategy, it was considered quite unusual. Google is another example of a company that has done very well while making it clear they were not going to dance to Wall Street's tune. But the existence of notable exceptions doesn't disprove the overall trend. An awful lot of companies these days don't seem to be able to find any better use for their retained earnings than stock buybacks ... at a time when technological change is only continuing to accelerate. Even if overall R&D spending is up, as might not be too surprising in an era of record profits, it could be up a lot more.