There's the bit about 60% of money being managed passively, and these passive funds will buy Microsoft stock at $100 or $1M (proportionally). The stock buybacks shouldn't affect the market cap (it's just moving money). It's impossible to know if the buybacks have actually affected market caps, but consensus seems to be that it's increasing market caps. That means you're getting free money from passive funds. Seems like a problem for pensions and most 401ks.
That's assuming "passive funds" aren't what huge corporations hold their liquid assets in when they're not used for buybacks. At least 60% is less than ~100%.
