The public loves the fall of a ruthless and greedy financial titan — this, of course, is what made Oliver Stone's original <i>Wall Street</i> such a hit. But the practice of "insider trading" can actually be beneficial. In a free society, there would be no such thing as laws against so-called insider trading.
They did what they were supposed to do. Now, they have few job options at all.
Faced with such apparently nonsensical results as the Anne Hathaway effect, automatic trading programs look silly. On the other hand, this is true of any task to which humans put computers; it doesn't mean computers are useless.
The main problem with Landsburg's argument is that it unintentionally misleads the reader.
Firms have lots of cash on their balance sheet and it's not earning anything. What to do? Buy the competition.
When the state spends more money than it receives in taxes — a fact indelibly written into the bond — it is deliberately committing an act of bankruptcy. Is dishonesty transmuted into its opposite when committed by a legal entity?
