Why would business leaders invest rather than buying back some of their companies’ own shares?

Why would business leaders invest in an uncertain world, rather than paying dividends to demanding (but generally risk-averse) investors, or buying back some of their companies’ own shares (thereby improving the price/earnings ratio and, better yet, increasing their own remuneration)? 

 Jim O'Neill,  former chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management and former Commercial Secretary to the UK Treasury,

 Project Syndicate 26 April 2017



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