Brian and others, I should have included the link to the speech by former SEC commissioner Robert J. Jackson Jr.

sec.gov - Speech jackson

After talking about the use of stock "to give corporate managers incentives to create sustainable long-term value" he asks "Or are we paying executives to pursue short-term stock-price spikes rather than long-term growth?" He then says, "Even more disturbing, there is clear evidence that a substantial number of corporate executives today use buybacks as a chance to cash out the shares of the company they received as executive pay." I recommend Mr. Jackson's statement of the problem.

Wouldn't it be best to avoid the question of self-serving behavior by not leveraging a buyback effect? Just avoiding illegality is a low standard for leadership.

I should also have pointed out to search for "People are worried about stock buybacks" in Matt Levine's writing in order to skip over the unrelated topics. I was interested to hear Todd Combs mention Matt Levine in the NFM interview.

I'll repeat that my main concern is understanding the negatives around buybacks that are driving both targeted taxation and suggestions to outlaw buybacks.