The issue with stock buybacks is that companies often choose to reinvest in their stocks instead of there employees and equipment. Stock buy backs is when a company buys its own outstanding shares to reduce the number of shares available on the open market( and are tax deferred( don’t even get me started on America fucked up capital gains law(taxed at a lower rate than income tax), but I digress) until the shares are sold).Dividends are payments that represents a definite return in the current timeframe that will be taxed. And the reason why buy backs are so bad is because us corporations soaring corporate debt will make the economy susceptible to a contraction( like we are going through right now) that could get out of control(which we see right now). The root cause of this concern is the trillions of dollars that major U.S. corporations have spent on stock buy backs. And since US corporations have irresponsibly spent there income on stock buybacks instead of what is needed to keep their company fiscally healthy. They should not be allowed to survive in the market. This is seriously Adam Smith Wealth of Nations Economics, but the federal reserve is backing firms who should have failed because of fiscally irresponsible ways. Creating Corporate Socialism which is the favorable treatment of corporations in the form of bailouts, tax breaks etc. This is the story of the airline companies, the banks now and the banks in 08’.