The S&P 500 growth means that companies are confident enough in their future cash flow that they will borrow money against that to buyback their own stock. This has been a trend since the 80s.
We are living in situation where, instead of competition driving profits down to 0, or profits being used to finance investment and growth -- profits are simply returned to shareholders. Low interest rates are only reinforcing this. It's a great time to be a shareholder, and not a great time to be a consumer.
Alternatively, it means that executives that are mostly incentivized by short-term stock price movements via option grants have found a way to juice their compensation.
We are living in situation where, instead of competition driving profits down to 0, or profits being used to finance investment and growth -- profits are simply returned to shareholders. Low interest rates are only reinforcing this. It's a great time to be a shareholder, and not a great time to be a consumer.