> Executives build the company that the investors want them to build. Assuming they're mindless drones of the faceless "investors" with no free will or intent

> Executives build the company that the investors want them to build. Assuming they're mindless drones of the faceless "investors" with no free will or intent of their own. > But the investors don't want to bet on the value of physical planes, nor do they want to bet on the price of oil. If they wanted to place those bets, they'd just invest in Boeing or Exxon. You're putting the cart before the horse since that's a choice by the exec. If they wanted to derisk themselves they could as well hedge by buying puts on Boeing or calls on Exxon. Overall, who decides what a good business is? Unfortunately, that's come down to a gang of Wall Street suits who would much rather punish good businesses for not catering to their attention span deficient trading/gambling habits. We would much rather have some jack of all trades making business decisions based on their next year's bonus/chalet/yacht rather than people who depend on those businesses (customers and employees), so of course we get to this state.