Justin Fox, Columnist

The Big and Possibly Dumb Buyback Boom

The Trump tax cuts have given corporations plenty of money to play with. Share repurchases may not be the best way to use it.

March 6, 2018 at 12:20 PM UTC

By Justin Fox

Justin Fox is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering business, economics and other topics involving charts. A former editorial director of the Harvard Business Review, he is author of “The Myth of the Rational Market.”

Have we crossed a line yet?
Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg

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Buybacks are really popular right now! In February, according to research firm TrimTabs, U.S. corporations announced $153.7 billion in share repurchases -- a new one-month record. Investment strategists at JPMorgan Chase & Co. estimate that buybacks will total more than $800 billion this year, which would also be a record.

Is that smart or dumb?