John Kay - Why business loves capital markets, even if it doesn't need capital: To the extent that they had any mechanism of accountability at all, it was to an internal cadre rather than an external market. And so the relationship of capital markets to big business has undergone a fundamental shift. Corporate governance today is not an incidental feature in the relationship between companies and markets: corporate governance, not capital allocation, is the principal economic and social function of those capital markets.
When Apple borrowed, it did so not to raise funds for its business but to return to its shareholders cash secured from operations. Capital markets are no longer mechanisms for putting money into companies, but mechanisms for getting money out.