Was corporate profit growth a bubble inflated by "financial engineering"?
It's certainly more nuanced than that. However, it does point out the fact that corporations focus too much on shareholder value as opposed to just making a good business system...except for the major players that is.These the so called "too big to fail" types of companies which borderline monopolize market sectors like Amazon and Walmart. But they don't care during recessions because they're fine. They essentially are the government as they have a larger impact on your daily life than the actual government!It's not so much that the stock buybacks are the straw that broke the camel's back, it's just another inevitable economic event that the invisible hand dealt. There is no stopping it. Otherwise we're just back in a labor economy again where money can't flow where irrational people deem they need to  place it.