'Massive Share Buybacks' Are Nothing to Fear

I am intrigued by the idea that opinion articles, blog posts and tweets can have “give away” phrases that reveal more bias than the author intends, or perhaps are correlated with errors in economic reasoning. I have a candidate for such a phrase: “massive share buybacks,” or the variation, “massive share repurchases.” The words sound innocuous enough, but such talk ought to raise red flags in your mind.

The background is this: Congress recently passed a major tax reform bill, which included a corporate tax rate cut. Many Republicans are of course claiming it will significantly boost wages, investment and economic growth. I am mostly agnostic about the scope of those claims, and I have mixed feelings about the bill overall. (It brings better incentives but also increases the deficit too much.) As you might expect, there is an army of commentators and pundits determined to make the new bill look bad.