The Public Trust
To offer a brief sketch - The new idea I suggest revolves around shares and derivative contracts being issued to a Pubilc Trust, an active governmental trading institution that would post all gains as income for the public, in order to contribute to the financing of public affairs (e.g. commodity subsidies, education, healthcare, etc.) Record trading profits, year after year, should not be exclusively available to financial instutions without public obligations.
There are a multiplicity of ways that the Public Trust would work to support the holes created by elitist, sequestered speculation as it stands today. Many employees do have pensions and 401K plans. But they do not benefit from shorting activities associated with hedge funds, or derivative trading. Hence they become buyers of interests that are sellers on declines, and there is no balance where the public is always left holding the bag. The public, via its government, should be able to benefit in exactly the same way as the private speculator, and not simply be locked into long trades (e.g. within 401K plans, etc.) in stocks, hoping for an incline, when conditions are otherwise. It is not the case, at present, that all people benefit from the opportunity of speculation, because of the large capital requirements for successful trading. In fact, as a result, most speculative activity benefits only a few major players, thus furthering the income gap.
Foreclosures, gas prices at the pump (and green energy), a universal healthcare system - all of these are examples of things that could be paid for and/or subsidized through the Public Trust.
There are a multiplicity of ways that the Public Trust would work to support the holes created by elitist, sequestered speculation as it stands today. Many employees do have pensions and 401K plans. But they do not benefit from shorting activities associated with hedge funds, or derivative trading. Hence they become buyers of interests that are sellers on declines, and there is no balance where the public is always left holding the bag. The public, via its government, should be able to benefit in exactly the same way as the private speculator, and not simply be locked into long trades (e.g. within 401K plans, etc.) in stocks, hoping for an incline, when conditions are otherwise. It is not the case, at present, that all people benefit from the opportunity of speculation, because of the large capital requirements for successful trading. In fact, as a result, most speculative activity benefits only a few major players, thus furthering the income gap.
Foreclosures, gas prices at the pump (and green energy), a universal healthcare system - all of these are examples of things that could be paid for and/or subsidized through the Public Trust.
