“We realized that dilution was systemic in the Standard & Poor’s 500,” Mr. Winters said in an interview, “and that buybacks were being used not necessarily to benefit the shareholder but to offset the dilution from executive compensation. We call it a look-through cost that companies charge to their shareholders. It is an expense that is effectively hidden.”

The hotels themselves are required to have look-through atriums, so that passers-by as well as paying guests can see the picturesque spread of Los Angeles spilling out across the basin.

One of them calls for making the “look-through rule” on foreign earnings permanent.

More recently, tax treaties with foreign jurisdictions typically include “limitation of benefit” provisions that provide a look-through to who owns a given entity, whether trust or corporation.

It would be cumbersome to calculate the look-through earnings on a portfolio of 25 stocks, but you don’t have to do that.