I agree with you that the hysteria over HFT is silly and misplaced. If anyone thought the computers were ripping them off, they've clearly never dealt with a specialist. However, this is part of the real problem, isn't it? People that don't devote half their waking life to this stuff don't really understand it, and investing in something you don't understand is always a bad move. The problem really isn't that what's happening with HFT is unfair. It's a little unfair, but life always is. The real problem is that no one has any idea what we're talking about and they are beginning to perceive our system of allocating capital as a giant scam.

Nowhere. But this cowardice should be called out because self censorship is the beginning of the end for free speech. Americans should feel compelled to stand up for the values of their society and should be shamed when they fail to do so.

I also find your use of the term innocent interesting. Innocent of what, exactly?

As a member of society, how does liquidity benefit me?

I think I now understand what you meant with moral hazard. For this to be true you need more influence over the operation of a company than a typical day trader would have. They're just into a company for a minute or two because they either believe they have insider information about it or they've abused mathematics in some fashion that makes them think they know the future. Executives of companies can easily affect share prices and thus are subject to moral hazard. We have a number of laws concerning what people in those positions can and can't do, but we rarely enforce any of them.

Moral hazard is a little different than that. It has a very specific meaning, and originates from the insurance industry. However, you are absolutely correct when you equate day trading to gambling. They are one and the same. Investors actually invest in things, so they care about stuff like dividends. Unfortunately, the stock market is much more amenable to gambling than it is to investors at the moment. It's actually hostile to people who want to invest in something:

1. A number of stocks don't pay dividends, instead providing a hilarious fiction named capital appreciation. Capital appreciation works by assuming that someone will pay more for a worthless piece of paper than you were willing to pay for it. Capital appreciation works until the final sucker buys it and realizes that no one is dumber than they are.

2. Things like 401K plans force people to dump money into wall street indiscriminately, driving prices of stocks up beyond the point where they make any sense in terms of ROI.

3. You have only a microscopic say in how the company is run and are absolutely last in line to be repaid when they go bankrupt.

There are much better investment opportunities than stocks.

It's odd that you mention the iPhone, which has physical buttons for adjusting the volume. I wonder why those are there, given that you can adjust the volume on the touchscreen? Well, anyhow, I'll let you get back to replacing your brake pedal with a touchscreen.

Absolutely. The networks we have will not support unique HD video streams to each home. Also, there are latency and connection reliability problems. The probability of this not being bullshit to scam investors with is very small.

So you're saying he'll be aware of it after he's dead?