Theoretically speaking, what would happen if everything corporate tumbled to ZERO, that hypothetically, no corporate stock was any longer worth anything? Who would own it? Who could use the plants, name brands, etc., that remained? IIRC, a ‘corporation’ is a government approved entity, isn’t it?
Just wondering. I have no answer. I don’t know enough about it myself.
Wouldn’t the last owner that couldn’t sell the stock still own it? When I was a kid I saw an old shack that had stock certificates as wall cover to keep the cold from coming through cracks. I asked my dad what they were, I remember they were so pretty, looked like art. I wondered later if the stock had recovered the certificates I saw may have been worth a lot of money. As to the tangible things a corporation owns if the company goes broke don’t the creditors take possession?
A corporation is just a type of business structure set up so that the individuals owners don’t directly pay the taxes and aren’t responsible directly for liabilities. This allows multiple owners to invest and make profit whereas they wouldn’t be able to do it individually. If you own stock, you do pay the taxes indirectly because the corporate tax lowers your profit, and you pay directly when you receive dividends. ( double taxation )
If corporations go bankrupt as you are questioning, they would have to sell their assets and pay any bond holders and then the stockholders may get anything left.
It would still have owners who beleved it had value.
The stock price is what others think it’s worth.