THE Berlin Stock Exchange still exists—as a building,
as an institution with large offices, with brokers and
bankers, with a huge organization for daily announcement
of stock and bond quotations. But it is only a
pale imitation of its former self and of what a stock
exchange is supposed to be. For the Stock Exchange
cannot function if and when the State regulates the flow
of capital and destroys the confidence of investors in
the sanctity of their property rights.
The glorious days when millions of marks daily
poured into the Stock Exchange, when the bonds and
securities of foreign countries were handled, when new
concerns and trusts were promoted and exciting speculative
maneuvers were staged—those glorious times have
long since departed, and even the doorkeeper who
vividly remembers the excitement of the “good old days”
does not believe that they will ever return. Yet the
decrepit machine still runs.
From the Vampire Ecconomy, 1939
Even so, I think it's the artificial support of the market that has created a far worse problem.