Companies s appetite for buying back own shares is a distinctive feature of American capitalism.
Last week apple demonstrated this by raising its buyback programme. Extending it by a year to 2019.
Some hope that if confidence picks up big firms can be persuaded to invest more and buy back fewer shares.
But so far that hasn't happened.
High buybacks partly reflect the fact that profits are high, so firms have plenty of surplus funds to return to shareholders
It would help the economy if...
