Buybacks are just dividends but more flexible for the company. It boosts stock price because it tells investors that the share is more than a speculative vehicle.
Returning value to shareholders isn't nefarious.
Returning value to shareholders isn't nefarious.
For example a common argument to ban buybacks is that they were illegal prior to 1982. We also had no good place to park savings before 1982, where at the same time we had seen enormous inflation the stock markets had been on steady decline since the mid 1960s. People weren't just losing money due to inflation, they had fewer options about where to put it reliably.
And when it comes to regulation I don't know what the best way to do it is other than letting companies that made bad buybacks die, or bail them out by diluting shareholders in some kind of bankruptcy proceeding.