Should the stock market be abolished?

Well, this is a question I think I can answer with some expertise.

Those who believe that any interference with a capital market system is "socialist", or sneer that the question reveals ignorance because they "know all about economics and finance" have obviously not studied it at degree level. I have.

Corporations have one goal and one goal only: Profit. There are very few exceptions to this rule, and thinking otherwise is just fluffy wishful delusion. In pursuit of profit & growth, there are literally hundred and thousands of case studies which show gross abuses of worker's rights, exploitation, health & safety breaches, illegal practices, fraud, insider trading, cartels and monopolies - basically every practice that can be considered unethical and immoral. That is precisely why the law books are full of statutes to protect the consumer, employees, and the general public: An unrestricted, unpoliced market is a disaster area of selfish greed at the expense of everyone else. We wouldn't have consumer protection laws, antitrust laws, and regulations concerning companies if it were otherwise.

Extend this principle to the current stock exchanges, and you can see that the trade in shares is much more than raising capital for a public company, and much more than an opportunity for the ordinary person to own a piece of a successful enterprise. Let's forget for a moment all the recent securities fraud cases like Enron, Citigroup, Merril Lynch, Haliburton, etc. Let's also forget the world largest international fraud cases of the sale and repackaging of sub-primes which caused the credit crisis we're undergoing. Because there are much more important issues at stake.

Josette Sheeran of the UN World Food Programme voiced the opinion that financial trading of foods-commodities should be abolished because the futures trading of staple foods on the stock exchange which have inflated prices threatens to plunge over 100 million people on every continent into hunger.

A recent study by Professor Costello & his team at UCL:
"The team present evidence that the recent expanded market in food-commodity derivatives has led to large increases in speculative investment, pushing global food prices far higher than predicted by supply and demand effects."
(Derivatives are shadow financial instruments that include forwards, futures, options, and swaps which may be used as insurance вЂ“ hedging вЂ“ or for speculation. Speculative purchasing of derivatives can create inflationary pressure, causing particular prices to increase above their real value, by artificially increasing demand.)

What does it all show? That the stock market does not reflect the real world of supply and demand. That the rise and fall of share prices does NOTHING to contribute to the national wealth - nothing in terms of jobs, nor to the society at large. And corporate investors enjoy so many tax breaks, that in many cases we have directors of multinational financial institutions earning tens of millions a year paying LESS tax than the lady who cleans his office. We have the crazy situation with Hedge Fund managers who can earn more than a hundred million dollars in a MONTH at NO RISK to himself - by leveraging (borrowing) heavily from other financial houses to bulk up his accounts. Whether he loses or gains, he earns vast sums in charges so he is literally encouraged to risk more and more of other people's money with little effort. It is so ridiculously unregulated that if Hedge Funds were a country, it would be the 8th biggest economy in the world, and it's all in the hands of a very few people with the power to buy political power.

Food-Commodities speculation should be abolished. Hedge Fund managers should be held accountable for losses incurred by their clients. Any company committing fraud should be removed from the exchange - not given a slap on the wrist and sent back to do more of the same. There is a very large and dangerous gap between the haves and the have-nots which is unhealthy for any society. Anyone who confuses necessary regulation with communism should go back to school. Socialist liberals are right. They always are.

No, it does serve a purpose in raising capital for companies and also allow individuals to invest in companies. Without the market how would you epect someone to invest in a company they beleive in ? You may want the market abolished due to speculators and whith all the issues that have gone on in the past few years, I think that there should be better regulations, but not an abolishment.

That's a very socialistic Liberal question

Apparently you have no knowledge of basic economics, or finance.

You don't understand what drives corporate America or what made America great, nor do you have any understanding of retirement plans, profit sharing plans 401K or the like.

You don't understand the value of wealth, not only for the rich but for the poor and middle class

If you understood any of the above, you would not have asked this immature, naive, uneducation question

DUCK! I see rotten tomatoes being thrown.

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I don't know about "abolished" but with the onset of the predatory lending and the speculatory purchasing of homes just to sell them quickly to make HUGE profits causing the Housing Bubble and the ensuing BURST, and now with the OIL SPECULATORS driving the price of gasoline right through the roof --

I think it is crystal clear that the market needs MUCH more policing.

CITIZENS have laws. CITIZENS have to obey the rules. Why doesn't the financial industry?

After all, "corporations are people."

HAR!

Why should it?

If people want to share ownership of a company, they should be allowed to sell it, right?

Only if you plan on a revolution to make the US a communist country.

it should but since so much of modern society is reliant on it, it will proably never ever happen.

absolutely, the country needs to get back to it's roots. Fourty acres and a mule I say. Dog-gone it, those were the good old days.

It's been done.

And with no stock market we will have no large companies and can start making our own shoes and trying to make pig iron in backyard smelters. Mao tried this in the 1960s. China is still recovering. The Soviet Union tried through most of the 20th century and now there is no Soviet Union, but there are stock companies in Moscow.

Hi: No the stock market shouldn't be abolished the stock market is what keeps the economy going. See stock which is trade of goods bring jobs and in make money from other countries who may do business with us. However, one thing that does need to be remove is the Federal Reserve. See the federal reserve is making money off of war, real estate, forclosures, gas, oil, and our federal taxes without using a dime of there money. And believe or not the Federal Reserve is not federal and holds the same entities of business just like UPS or Kelloggs but they are protect by congress ain't a blimp.

To learn more click on http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5547481422995115331

Hope this info helps. Take care, God bless

Um no, dude back in the thrities we went through a depression cuz the stupid thing crashed, so what do you think is going to happen when we abolish it?

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