binky chadha, chief global strategist at deutsche bank, is back with us.ne argument we have is that we have hit peak buybacks. why is that an unfair comparison? that is the nominal dollar amount and no one can disagree that 400 60 million in by last year is about the peak we had in 2007, the last physical bpeak. it is important to keep in mind that the buybacks were done out of earnings. higher, of 25-30% normalized earnings are 40-50% higher. if you think about buybacks as the typical payout, the payout ratio is well below where we were at the last peak. if you use the payout ratio for earnings in 2007, instead of the buybacks today, if we were at the peak we would $600 billion in buybacks. scarlet: the other question is leverage because you have found that the operating cash flow generated by earnings fully covers not just buybacks but dividends and as well. companies that are taking on debt, that is happening because they can, not because they need to. binky: exactly. the s&p 500 as a whole, operating cash flow for the covers the three claims on cash fl