Is High frequency trading the next bubble?

I would recommend anyone that is politically active to listen to the latest `file on four` (available to the 14/11/089) on high frequency trading. And if anyone had any doubts on the LIBERAL DEMOCRAT policy about seperating the normal retail banking that involves itself with SMES, mortgages and savings etc and the high frequency trading where shares can be traded in milliseconds I’d like to hear the explanations and what their own huge bank balance is.

In the programme it told how there’s a two-tier share trading system between the usual type where you phone up a broker to the ones where institutions trade with each other via computers using algorithms with no people involved. Worse than that these computer systems actually snoop on the first type of traders `to get ahead of them` to make huge profits.

There are also `dark pools` that are off-exchange, if you like, where pension funds trade shares with each other.

In other words companies (peoples jobs) are treated as playthings. Perhaps these people can own up to this and reveal all?

Apparently, these `casino operations` will distort our economy by making banks even more cautious about lending thus creating more unemployment.

And if that worries someone as conservative as Lord Myners it should worry everyone. Pity the message hasn’t sunk in with his boss Gordon Brown who refuted the idea when it was put to him by Nick Clegg. The point is that no regulatory body can properly regulate these operations yet should they go bust they’ll ask to be bailed out.

Is it any surprise that the name of Goldman Sachs reared its ugly head. They have profited greatly from the credit crunch and now are jealously guarding their algorithmic code. Still, perhaps the CEO can explain how that is in keeping with God’s plan for prosperity. It’s certainly not to do with driving down commission  prices for the benefit of ordinary people – just for the super-rich like himself. The last banking crisis seemed to be created by self-delusionists – we don’t want another one.

In my opinion if Gordon Brown doesn’t understand the gravity of what the File on Four programme portrays then he is DANGEROUSLY INCOMPETENT.

If Government means anything it means dealing with things way before the curve (not ten years behind like Gordon Brown). Many people are realising that they can no longer afford the ineffective failings of Labour. They view Labour as old-fashioned, over-powered and over-indulged.

Furthermore, it is imperative that we reform the financial system in the way Vince Cable does so that our broken democracy doesn’t crumble any further. Should wealth inequalities grow wider we will see geographical inequalities grow in an equal amount – that will give assistance to extreme forces to the detriment of the law-abiding majority.

Of course, should that ever happen, the ferrari-driving bankers won’t be anywhere to be found.

If this doesn’t make intelligent people think about Gordon Brown and Labour in a negative light I don’t know what will.