Because the talk about inflation and high gas prices is endless, we can assume that it's pretty much empty. What is of much greater importance, and never makes the headlines, or has little political value for both the mainstream left and the right as a whole, is stock buybacks, which, according to Associated Press, reached a mind-boggling $882 billion in 2021. And "Goldman Sachs is forecasting [that this form of stock manipulation will] reach $1.