Inside out
Insider trading is the sign of an efficient market (Gecko's Law) and we can't have that, can we? The Stock Exchange must stamp it out, with the help of a supporting cast of jobsworths. They are making head- way. The chairman of a famous company complains that when investors and analysts arrive to see him, they now come armed with disclaimers and ask him to sign them. 'Promise you won't tell us anything we don't know,' they say — 'that would make us insiders. Just sign here.' Then they can talk about the cricket and the grouse, like merchant bankers in the days when work was vulgar. The worse-informed a market is, the worse it does its job of allocating capital, and the closer it gets to being a lot- tery — but we are in favour of lotteries, aren't we? The state is just starting one, guaranteed free from insiders. Let's merge the Stock Exchange into it.
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