Mark Cuban:  What Business is Wall Street in?
Simple solution. Penny a share transfer tax for all trades. Corresponding amounts on bonds and other instruments. Watch the amazing reduction in volume and volatility. Then watch the return to focus on value trading.<p>Like that idea? Next, open up public companies books. Not in the formal but phony SEC/GAAP way. No, I mean realtime journal entries. I will do the accounting myself. You can too. Link the trading tax to how often the company updates its numbers. Want more liquidity for your stock? Give more information.<p>Still on board? Ok, now if a company releases forecasts, they must release the model they used to generate the forecast. Yes, the code. Doesn't matter how simple or complex. Bullshit forecasts will be self-evident. Data for better ones will be more available.<p>Now all those things would make finance productive again by putting the focus back on capital allocation and moving it away from trading, speculation and lies. Make regulators focus on enforcing real transparency, since they don't know how to regulate behavior. This takes away the upside from the regulator/industry revolving door. It would be a great world for analysts and investors.<p>In olden days (1980) all this would have been technically infeasible. Now we have the computing power to handle it.