They bought Boeing with their own money.

Buybacks were illegal throughout most of the 20th century because they were considered a form of stock market manipulation. But in 1982, the Securities and Exchange Commission passed rule 10b-18, which created a legal process for buybacks and opened the floodgates for companies to start repurchasing their stock en masse.

The SEC's decision to make this shift came against the backdrop of President Ronald Reagan's era of deregulation and coincided with the rise of 'free market' economists preaching a new type of social responsibility for business: increasing profits.

So, uh, yeah, it's more of that sweet #1 bullshit from Reagan. It's true the loss of experienced people hurt the company, there have been numerous reports on that aspect. That doesn't have anything to do with cheating on quality inspections.

Nope. You are wrong. It is all about the move to force actual aerospace engineers out of management. Then it was the long hard drive to the bottom. Move away from a fairly strong union state, make ‘companies’ that make parts all over the US, assemble by non union workers (who have no power, poor training, and are expendable). Further, those folks NEARING retirement get nit picked to oblivion to quit before they are supposed to retire or are fired for mounting minor infractions. QA folks have been undermined constantly during this time.

All to save money in the short term. This is a story I have been hearing in the Puget Sound area for a decade at least. It is now finally catching up to them, but they are going to try to make the little folks eat it. These are C suite decisions, purely.

There was a LOT more to it than that, reportedly.