It's worth calling out the systematic distortion here. As a rational investor one may buy into a stock under the thesis that the company is going to perform bu

It's worth calling out the systematic distortion here. As a rational investor one may buy into a stock under the thesis that the company is going to perform buybacks with debt. As you can be long until the debt buybacks end, and the company implodes. A smarter investor would acquire large stakes in companies capable of issuing debt and lobby the boards to perform buybacks, allowing a form of corporate raiding with less capital invested and dramatically more reward. Both of these strategies rely on the greater fool hypothesis, but in a period with historically low interest rates and an implicit hedge that the fed would stimy any wide spread defaults it's a valid investment strategy.