[jariel]

Of course - I'm not denying that 'stock buybacks' have a strategic impetus, of course they do.

Every financial decision does.

I'm saying that the popular notion of 'stock buybacks' as somehow a 'windfall' for investors is just not really true at all.

The notions that some individual investors are literally selling their stock, but instead of to some other party but the company itself, is not a big deal.

Stock buybacks are a rational and normal part of financial operations not some 'special win' for investors as some of the rhetoric implies.

[jessaustin]

They aren't a "special win" in general. When they occur a month before a downturn that generates a bailout, they are.

[jariel]

Even a 'month before' some unforeseen event, it's not a 'special win'. It's barely a special win in any event.

[iso947]

Aren’t $1k of dividends taxed more than $1k or capital gains?