the companies do not have to pay dividend to make buying its stock rational. You may want to have control of the company and get gains other than directly paid dividend or wait till company achieves certain investment goal and buy its stock back. Whatever the motivation you may decide to sell shares and move your money elsewhere. That is also a legitimate way of dealing with ownership of an enterprise. There is nothing wrong with buy/sell game only when it is becoming so detached from reality as it is the case with HFT it may start influencing financial markets in more ways than the ones that are beneficial for real economy. The sheer fact that we talk about real economy means we entered the world of trouble and virtual rights to money that does not exist (which is in a way funny as fiat currencies we all play with are already some kind of virtual beings). OC sticking money in the bank instead of investing is not a problem in itself but possibly a realization that there is nothing (or not enuff os something that) this money can buy? I exaggerate of course but it is a warring sign if many do that. Possibly we got hold of inflation problem by not allowing central banks to print w/o end only to find out that the govs smart as they are just used up money that could have been printed in the future i.e. borrowed it. Well it is a fancy word of financial innovation that economist readers seem to dislike

Not really true. The trade in stocks is a valid function of stock markets. This indeed provide liquidity and equalizes the prices between different market places. It is also not realistic to call people buying stock and selling it next day - speculators - this does not have to be the case and there may even be regulations forcing some of the actors to do so (pension funds or banks may be required to sell if certain things happen etc) . It is however not true that the frequent traders did decrease the price either. The price decreased after more actors started playing, market got deregulated etc. The frequent trading did change the character of the game though - especially as high volume frequent trading agents can see in 'the future' essentially ripping off everybody else. They are also indeed pure speculators that do not bring much to anybody else and instead bringing barriers into the trading for everybody not only with this 'looking in the future' thing but because of the weight of their trades everybody else is outsmarted or even the price is influenced in a way not having anything to do with real economy and possibly profits are made in such way too. It also must be remembered that albeit there are claims to contrary there is very little that frequent traders actually create. In general more frequency is not really needed there and some limits were in place. You may argue that either limits in frequency or tax on operations or some mix of both or some other feature. OC you are on the losing side of the argument if you claim such things as the HFTers have enough money to convince lawmakers of that their righst are god given and do not have to satisfy any need of a nation.

this is one of the subjects where already analysis of the situation is difficult and may vary significantly between different human beings as they grow with different speeds and achieve different levels (if there can be) of enlightenment. So this is already difficult if we were all from one culture and subject of one law but we are as you pointed out not. The fact that definitions are so difficult allowed many criminals do unspeakable things and walk free to (mostly unwilling or unknowing) young people who did not know better at the time but felt terribly afterward. That is I think t he reason why law is written in relatively straight manner as to exclude a possibility that unspeakable acts that we as a society do not want to have around are and stay forbidden. This leaves of course the problem of punishing stated minors for e.g. sending revealing pictures of themselves trough public communication networks (as was the case in US some time ago) or people that did thing that were in no way wrong but fell under the detailed prescription of illegal act in these contexts with associated harsh punishment (protect the children!) and putting into registry of such deviants. In short the problem is that clear distinction is impossible in a situation when it is needed to make a decision with dire consequences. This shows the limits of letter of law and importance of intelligent people making law as well as as intelligent people interpreting law. The bad thing is that this already is a stretch and even if we had those intelligent and informed and enlightened individuals at indicated places (do we?) we would still have a public that in its majority is ignorant and negligent and at the same time vicious, merciless and reckless. The associated hysteria in media (how otherwise explain that a photo of bare chested father with a small kid on his arm is perceived a depiction of a pervert in US and UK and of a loving father by especially southern Europeans) is not helping either.

Not that I care anyway and the reason is this:I will live approx 50 years still assuming all goes well. This means that most likely I will no be directly affected by any of next nuclear disasters. Still some people will. Japanese people thought the same as you I guess. From your last sentences I also infer that you would not mind moving to Fukushima as radioactivity is such a good thing for health - I think property prices are quite good at he moment and as long as you get any ISP to bring connection there you can even work and post some stuff from there.

this of course only if you measure your progress by how much energy you consume. If so then I guess we should build as many power plants as possible and heat the oceans surrounding the continents. If you skip electricity producing facility of nuclear power plant you may even save on costs a little. OTOH maybe one should heat oceans with the electrical heaters that should provide some jobs for Chinese (producing the heaters) too. Good thinking.

no such thing as free market - it is like Yeti or santa claus, the rest may even be true. Your big corporations are not really yours and were never there to support society or democracy or anything of a kind, the hard rules and people on watch with their rules can force them to however I suppose that that is even what Adam SMith really meant in his wealth.. book.. The economist seems to think that this is what is happening in banking sector (see here. There are also some that believe that banking sector is guilty of problems of the real economy in ways not always apparent: by giving young talent a chance to earn w/o limits in almost no time you get these young people out of real economy so they do not make real money but virtual one. This is changing of course as finance seems to be cutting its workforce these days. Alas next 'nnovation' in finance may be beyond the corner so we will see whether situation will change. But of course the casino still works - we will see for how long.

that of course assuming that humans acts always on basis of reason and with all information available. Whether there is a case to defend here I do not know. There surely is a matter that needs to be addressed and I am not sure if we will like the outcome too much. Still if the cause is just but who knows anyway. The fact is she is on the receiving end of a stick and no amount of /. bickering is going to change that.

Torture you? That's a good idea. I like that.

You replace atheist with anything else or leave it there and it is true (or not in case of nut case splinter group). The reason is that bigotry seems to be a general faculty of man. Something humans love to hate religion or atheism makes no difference good thing is that it gives a good reason to blame others for anything or just for a sheer fun of hating others. Atheists or otherwise - they activists of each genre are bigots and love to hate. The reason is important only on the surface.

I knew it all along - Brits are more German than Germans. If they worship papers with big stamps (possibly eagle) then they can join German Federation as 17th Land. At least they would get decent roads and at least partially working public transportation (along other aspects of civilization).