There are a number of good solutions available. If anyone actually read the book, defeating the HFTs basically comes down to adding a delay to multi-exchange transactions such that the transaction reaches each exchange at the same time.
The real problem here is that the regular exchanges prioritized their own profits over their duty to provide a fair market to participants. That much is obvious, and frankly I think there should be criminal prosecutions for what they did (I doubt it will happen though).
This sort of things has happened in other areas. There are several market reports that sell early copies to a select group of clients. One just recently was selling an 'electronic' version even earlier than its main group of clients. It turned out that the HFTs who purchased the ultra-early version were using the data to front-run the normal clients (who in turn were trying to front-run regular investors reacting to the report when it goes public).
The instant it was revealed what the early-early group was doing, the regular clients stopped trading on the early news and the early-early group were suddenly not able to make any money front-running the regular clients. The producer of the report was forced to retract the early-early report or lose *all* of their regular clients who were tired of being front-run.
The stock exchanges are engaged in the same sort of crap with the HFTs, selling them special access and trade types that other investors do not have. Now the exchanges are in a position of having to deny that they are making things unfair when it is obvious that they are making things unfair.
This just goes to show how convoluted things can become. But once it gets into the light of day, corrective action can happen pretty quickly.
If our regulatory agencies were more competent, this would have been dealt with years ago instead of letting it fester as long as it has.
-Matt