I mean, from what I can read online, it seemed the practice was generally regarded as market manipulation prior to 1982 and so was de facto illegal. So yeah, thanks Reagan indeed. There are good reasons to blame him for his part in the current state of affairs.
I'm not even American... When I say "blame Reagan", I obviously don't mean him personally, rather his government or his neoliberal ideology even.
And you keep acting like the 1982 law had no effect when it made the largely marginalized practice of stock buybacks mainstream. Maybe you should check your biases.
