The value of the stock going down is the correct behavior if shareholders want to liquidate their holdings. For whatever reason. Dividends seem also like the c

The value of the stock going down is the correct behavior if shareholders want to liquidate their holdings. For whatever reason. Dividends seem also like the correct way to distribute profits back to shareholders. Buybacks on the other hand, I agree, are extremely shortsighted. If not used to go private and restructure the company, buybacks are a tool to provide liquidity to the more well-informed shareholders at the expense of other shareholders. Any sort of public debt financing of buybacks should be completely off the table. Convertible debt seems like a good structure. If companies want to take the chance on the debt and they fail, the company would be effectively nationalized. In any case, a condition of any such note should be to prevent dividends and buy-backs. Any reasonable investor would probably include such terms.