Corporate America Adds Fuel to the Stock Market Flame

May 12, 2025 • 1 minute, 4 second read

With trade deals lighting a fire under the stock market, corporate America is also bringing out some more fuel for the flames.

Corporate buybacks are on the rise – to all-time highs. In the past three months alone, companies have announced hundreds of billions of dollars in commitments to buy their own shares.

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Companies have plenty of options for what they do with their cash. By engaging in share buybacks, they’re effectively saying their own shares are the best game in town.

In reality, that’s rarely the case. A wise company would only buy back shares when they’re an extreme value.

As Andrew notes:

Today, share buybacks usually do two things. They increase earnings per share by reducing the total number of shares – not increasing earnings. And they usually help to offset the shares granted to executives. Neither of those is real growth in the underlying business.

Given this shell game, it’s clear that most companies buying back shares are signaling that they don’t know how to employ their cash better.

Can investors get good returns with companies buying back shares? Absolutely. But if it’s hollowing out the balance sheet, it’s creating riskier conditions as share prices rise higher.

Until that crisis hits, traders see buybacks as bullish.

-Addison

Ripple Effect

Corporate America Adds Fuel to the Stock Market Flame

Addison Wiggin

May 12, 2025 • 1 minute, 4 second read

With trade deals lighting a fire under the stock market, corporate America is also bringing out some more fuel for the flames.

Corporate buybacks are on the rise – to all-time highs. In the past three months alone, companies have announced hundreds of billions of dollars in commitments to buy their own shares.

Turn Your Images On

Companies have plenty of options for what they do with their cash. By engaging in share buybacks, they’re effectively saying their own shares are the best game in town.

In reality, that’s rarely the case. A wise company would only buy back shares when they’re an extreme value.

As Andrew notes:

Today, share buybacks usually do two things. They increase earnings per share by reducing the total number of shares – not increasing earnings. And they usually help to offset the shares granted to executives. Neither of those is real growth in the underlying business.

Given this shell game, it’s clear that most companies buying back shares are signaling that they don’t know how to employ their cash better.

Can investors get good returns with companies buying back shares? Absolutely. But if it’s hollowing out the balance sheet, it’s creating riskier conditions as share prices rise higher.

Until that crisis hits, traders see buybacks as bullish.

-Addison

Performative Clowns

November 13, 2025 • Addison Wiggin

Today’s Washington isn’t governed so much as stage-managed.

Politicians don’t solve problems; they perform them.

The current fixation is affordability — a word that will be repeated ad nauseam from now through the 2026 midterms, until it becomes as meaningless as “bipartisan.”

The script hasn’t changed in decades: promise relief, pass a law that raises costs, blame capitalism, hold hearings, fundraise, repeat.

A Bubble in Bubble Talk

November 13, 2025 • Addison Wiggin

Yes, Nvidia’s profits are up 500%, and its share price followed suit — a rare case where the story actually matches the math. But that’s the exception, not the rule.

Beneath the headlines, we’re starting to see the kind of financial gymnastics — circular lending, balance-sheet origami, and creative “partnerships” — that usually signal the boom is running out of breath.

If history rhymes, it looks like we’re closing in on the tail end of a mania.

The Hollow Class, Part II

November 12, 2025 • Addison Wiggin

As interest rates fell, investors swarmed into real estate, lured by yields and the illusion that home prices never fell. Wall Street’s private-label securitizers were soon packaging everything from pristine mortgages to what were effectively loans scribbled on napkins, thus turning them into bonds that glowed like gold — until you looked too closely.

For their part, the regulators and ratings agencies conveniently looked away and allowed the bubble to grow. Fannie Mae watched the frenzy from the sidelines at first.

The company’s mandate — written in law — was not to chase profits but to promote affordable housing. That is to say, to make sure that teachers, nurses, and other first-time buyers could own their own homes and unlock the American Dream.

But as Wall Street flooded the market with high-risk mortgage products, political pressure mounted. Congress demanded that Fannie “do its part” for low and moderate-income families.

The Debt of Intelligence

November 12, 2025 • Addison Wiggin

SoftBank offloaded its entire $5.83 billion Nvidia stake to bankroll an even bigger gamble: tens of billions in OpenAI.

Son insists this is his next Vision Fund moment.

OpenAI’s swelling valuation doubled SoftBank’s profit last quarter. He may have sold the pickaxe factory, but he’s betting the mine still goes deeper.

Performative Clowns

November 13, 2025 • Addison Wiggin

Today’s Washington isn’t governed so much as stage-managed.

Politicians don’t solve problems; they perform them.

The current fixation is affordability — a word that will be repeated ad nauseam from now through the 2026 midterms, until it becomes as meaningless as “bipartisan.”

The script hasn’t changed in decades: promise relief, pass a law that raises costs, blame capitalism, hold hearings, fundraise, repeat.

A Bubble in Bubble Talk

November 13, 2025 • Addison Wiggin

Yes, Nvidia’s profits are up 500%, and its share price followed suit — a rare case where the story actually matches the math. But that’s the exception, not the rule.

If history rhymes, it looks like we’re closing in on the tail end of a mania.

The Hollow Class, Part II

November 12, 2025 • Addison Wiggin

For their part, the regulators and ratings agencies conveniently looked away and allowed the bubble to grow. Fannie Mae watched the frenzy from the sidelines at first.

But as Wall Street flooded the market with high-risk mortgage products, political pressure mounted. Congress demanded that Fannie “do its part” for low and moderate-income families.

The Debt of Intelligence

November 12, 2025 • Addison Wiggin

SoftBank offloaded its entire $5.83 billion Nvidia stake to bankroll an even bigger gamble: tens of billions in OpenAI.

Son insists this is his next Vision Fund moment.

OpenAI’s swelling valuation doubled SoftBank’s profit last quarter. He may have sold the pickaxe factory, but he’s betting the mine still goes deeper.