I agree about the long haul view. As I understood it, one of the previous purposes of the stock market was to allow companies to be able to raise revenue by ha

I agree about the long haul view. As I understood it, one of the previous purposes of the stock market was to allow companies to be able to raise revenue by having risk-takers fund them. If the companies win, the risk-takers win. What with micro-trading practices looking for ups (and downs) in fractions of a second, market activity no longer seems to make sense, from the previous point of view. Maybe with a fresh round of investment by "laymen" we can once again move back towards a model that is closer to that of patronage...