The point of banning stock buybacks is to prevent companies from destroying themselves by giving everything to shareholders instead of investing, hiring, etc. L

The point of banning stock buybacks is to prevent companies from destroying themselves by giving everything to shareholders instead of investing, hiring, etc. Lowering taxes on dividends defeats the purpose of a potential ban on buybacks. Dividends were meant to be the only, regulated, mechanism through which a company can directly reward shareholders. I believe a proper law that bans stock buybacks and other similar schemes of redistribution to shareholders would be beneficial to the economy, and even to the shareholders themselves in the long term. I also believe such a law could be enforced with enough political will. It's just a matter of having an agency monitor stock movement, imposing hefty fines to offenders...