"Stock buybacks create an illusion of profitability"

The great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearance

as though they were realities

and are often more influenced by the things that seem than those that are

Niccolo Machiavelli

"If a company earns $0.90 per share and has one million shares outstanding,
reducing those shares to 900,000 will increase earnings per share to $1.00.

You take the blue pill, the story ends

you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe

You take the red pill,

you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes

Morpheus

The Matrix

No additional revenue was created, no more product was sold,
it is simply accounting [and debt fueled] magic.

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored

Aldous Huxley

Such activities do not spur economic growth or generate real wealth for shareholders.

Everybody sooner or later

sits down to a banquet of consequences

Robert Louis Stevenson

However, it does provide the basis for with which to keep Wall Street satisfied
and stock option compensated executives happy."

http://streettalklive.com/index.php/daily-x-change/1885-analyzing-earnings-as-of-q1-2014.html

It is difficult to get a man to understand something 

when his salary depends on his not understanding it

Upton Sinclair