You're giving the earnings back to investors because you don't have anything to invest them in yourself. Just like you're supposed to. It's just that you're ju

You're giving the earnings back to investors because you don't have anything to invest them in yourself. Just like you're supposed to. It's just that you're just doing it through a buyback rather than a dividend because dividends in the US are taxed like plain-old income and buybacks turn into capital gains and are taxed less.