flash trading

Muriel "Mickie" Siebert, the grande dame of Wall Street, says that Lehman Brothers should never have collapsed, that government's steps were a necessary evil and that there is a still a need for more regulation. She warns that left unregulated, the markets and the economy could still face turmoil ahead.

A lot more money could be flowing to promising startups. But it's not because some investors are disgruntled about VC's high risk, low returns, and scarcity of ways to cash out. And in the absence of a new wave of big tech innovation, investors have little incentive to part with their cash.

This distrust is based on the well-founded belief that Wall Street portrays financial markets as fair when in reality the playing field is truly tilted against average Americans. And at the core of that tilt is "information asymmetry" -- Wall Street knows more than you do.

Computer trading is likely behind the Dow's recent 1,000 point plunge intraday Thursday. These machines account for the vast majority of stock trading, but there's very little understanding of their role and impact on markets. We urgently need more transparency.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is considering a rule to ban flash trading, in which computers fed with order information trade stocks moments before the exchange executes those orders. Conceptually, it sounds like an open and shut case of insider trading to me. The SEC's thoughts on...