William Lazonick is director of the University of Massachusetts' Center for Industrial Competitiveness reports on How Greedy Corporations Are Destroying America's Status As "Innovation Nation". The problem is that corporations are pleading with the government to invest more money in R&R such as the NNI, but instead investing in R&D themselves, they use their profits for stock buy back programs. From 2001 to 2010, the top six companies wasted $185B for stock buy backs to boost their stock prices. The author argues that this money would be better spent on R&D.