Comment: Putting brakes on stock trading would make GameStop-type events worse

Slowing or staunching trades through a transaction tax as is proposed in the US would prolong the time it takes for a meteoric price rise to correct itself

‘President Joe Biden should resist the urge to pursue a financial transactions tax, because such a tax would inflict more pain on small investors rather than add sanity to stock markets.’ Picture: Getty

“God does not play dice with the universe,” Einstein once assured us. True. Instead, a gaggle of geeky gamers with goggles, toggles and Robinhood-like finance apps are determining our future.

Long before GameStop made headlines for its meteoric 1,700 per cent flash and crash and the US Congress demanded testimony from hedge fund executives, key parts of the economy were already being gamed.

Now, numerous US legislators are proposing a new tax on stock trades ...