Subject: Roger Lowenstein on buybacks
Government does not try to legislate, or to discourage or encourage, issues of stock. Nor should it get into the business of regulating repurchases.

As we have said before, stock issues and repurchases'really mirror images of the same transaction'reflect a management's verdict on its ability to profitably employ capital. And, they reflect the market's judgment about the relative appeal of competing firms for the same limited resource: capital.

Markets make mistakes all the time, but the reason Apple today is worth more than AT&T is that investors figured out that people would be using iPhones. Pressuring companies to retain unwanted capital would be like pressuring firms to keep their capital in rotary phones.

https://rogerlowenstein.substa...

Roger Lowenstein is one of the best financial writers. He wrote the biography 'Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist' 1995 and IMO is the best one yet.