Maybe I'm being overly cynical now, or overly optimistic about the future, but I hope that the 'stock market', as we currently know it, is footnote in the history books in fifty years.
Why? Because I really do think it's a blight on the planet. The stock market floats, Laputa-like, over the world of actual work, descending only to gather wealth or crush upstarts.
It produces no goods or services (unless you count separating day-traders from their money and making rich people richer), places corporations in the hands of absentee owners who will cheerfully self-destruct the whole shebang in exchange for a momentary stock uptick, and drains off smart folks who might otherwise be working on a cure for acne into the ever-hallowed cause of Getting Even Richer.
I know I'm ranting here, but I really don't get it. Just what ueful purpose _does_ the stock market have, socially? It came within pretty close to ruining this country back in 1929, and the great political thinkers in DC have even been thinking about linking the welfare of old folks to it. (This may be the second-dumbest idea Bill Clinton's ever had.)
As for the 'law of conservation of wealth', isn't that sort of true for the stock market? If the price of a stock goes up, and someone decides to cash in their chips, that money doesn't grow on trees. If everyone sold their stock at once, the system would fold like any other bookie who'd failed to cover his bets.
Maybe I'm just jealous because I haven't become outrageously rich selling stock in a company that can't make any profit. Maybe.
Slashdot Mirror
Why? Because I really do think it's a blight on the planet. The stock market floats, Laputa-like, over the world of actual work, descending only to gather wealth or crush upstarts.
It produces no goods or services (unless you count separating day-traders from their money and making rich people richer), places corporations in the hands of absentee owners who will cheerfully self-destruct the whole shebang in exchange for a momentary stock uptick, and drains off smart folks who might otherwise be working on a cure for acne into the ever-hallowed cause of Getting Even Richer.
I know I'm ranting here, but I really don't get it. Just what ueful purpose _does_ the stock market have, socially? It came within pretty close to ruining this country back in 1929, and the great political thinkers in DC have even been thinking about linking the welfare of old folks to it. (This may be the second-dumbest idea Bill Clinton's ever had.)
As for the 'law of conservation of wealth', isn't that sort of true for the stock market? If the price of a stock goes up, and someone decides to cash in their chips, that money doesn't grow on trees. If everyone sold their stock at once, the system would fold like any other bookie who'd failed to cover his bets.
Maybe I'm just jealous because I haven't become outrageously rich selling stock in a company that can't make any profit. Maybe.
"Oh, shut up and eat your stock options!"