Comment by nobodywillobsrv

A few points that seem to be going unstated here:

a) allowing share buy-backs might be good or bad. But it isn't good or bad unconditionally! The restrictions on the buyback policy should matter. Ideally, buybacks should make prices boring not create ultra thin books with hefty valuations that are cheaper to manipulate. But it seems the regulations around buybacks are in line with incentivizing growth and not stabilizing real prices.

b) to some extent putting uncertain/opaque research inside corporations is a defense against getting into regimes where it becomes easier to manipulate prices. I hadn't thought of it before, but if if important public companies become beholden to traded price and it becomes easy enough for large foreign entities to move markets, then it is simply a matter of "pricing" short term market punishment of a company for any policy you don't like. Yes, this might seem a bit far fetched, but remember that this kind of incremental worsening of outcomes is precisely what people say is hapenning via regulation and legal challenge in key industries.

Just some interesting thought legs spun off from the discussions here.