The following discussion clip is from the Occupy Wall Street demand summary list.
Demand 5 about the stock market is a good start. But it doesn’t go far enough. It doesn’t address the major problem.
The entire stock market has been corrupted from the fundamental reason for its creation. It was originally created to help BUSINESSES raise money to start and grow. What we have now is mostly just GAMBLING. The whole market is very much like a Ponzi scheme. It is also a “negative sum” game. Except for the initial investors, people can gain in the market only as long as prices go up. BUT, like a Ponzi scheme, the last one holding a stock when the price falls loses big. And, like a casino, for every trade, the HOUSE takes a cut! We need to stop the GAMBLING.
What should be done is to separate the stock market into a PRIMARY and SECONDARY market.
The primary market is the IPO investments. The rules for this need to be tightened up a lot. ALL citizens should be able to invest in these as simply as they buy stocks now, and no special deals should be available to company or other investors.
The secondary market, where stocks are just traded as gambling, should be controlled by a version of the RICO commission. A very important provision for this market is that NO bank deposits or pension funds should be allowed to participate in the secondary market.
As for the commodities market, a similar division should be made. Protecting businesses from climate variations should be handled with insurance. Speculation should be moved to the RICO commission and limits placed on who can invest and which commodities can participate.
These provisions should be added to demand 5 or another demand should be added to cover them.
