Trading in and of itself isn't the problem. Far from it, in fact, given how much well-regulated markets contribute to the overall well-being of society. The pro

Trading in and of itself isn't the problem. Far from it, in fact, given how much well-regulated markets contribute to the overall well-being of society. The problem is the race to the bottom unique to high-frequency trading which squanders otherwise productive human capital and consumes fixed-supply resources like real estate and electromagnetic spectrum. This also happens to be a case where a direct rule change can be implemented cheaply enough to provide more benefit at less cost than even an indirect tax, especially considering the overwhelming evidence that taxes on transactions of any sort are far from Pigouvian in nature.