![PBS NewsHour - Making Sen$e show](https://d3dthqtvwic6y7.cloudfront.net/podcast-covers/000/046/313/small/making-sen-e-pbs-newshour-podcast-pbs.jpg)
Summary: This week has marked the longest uninterrupted stock market gains in U.S. history, thanks in part to a steady economic recovery now nine years old. But another driver is the growth of stock buybacks: companies purchasing their own shares. Whether this practice benefits the larger economy is very much in question. Economics correspondent Paul Solman has more in his weekly series, Making Sense.