Thanks for pointing out a rebuttal. Taking a step back from "good or bad?"... One thing I haven't seen outside the academic literature is a discussion of the

Thanks for pointing out a rebuttal. Taking a step back from "good or bad?"... One thing I haven't seen outside the academic literature is a discussion of the leverage ratchet effect [1]. Buybacks are just one lever that actuates the ratchet. A question worth asking: "why has corporate leverage increased so much over the past 30 years?" I don't claim to have an answer, but asking that question could shed some light on whether buybacks are "good or bad". [1] https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/working-papers/leverage-ratchet-effect https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/working-papers...