A billionaires advises the Wall Street protesters

We have all heard advise from various pundits and professors on the fact that the protesters around the world dont have an agenda, that they are just hippie agitators out for a good time and that these demonstrations will peter out with the onset of colder weather.

So it was refreshing to find a billionaire, Mark Cuban, providing advise to these demonstrators “what I would do if the OWS movement asked for my advice” and he goes on to lay out a few provocative ideas

1. Expose the Great Lie of Wall Street.

Every CEO tells the same great white lie. It is at the heart of every communication. It is at the heart of every financial decision. It is, at it’s very base, the reason why you all are in the 99pct and they are in the 1pct. The Lie ?

Great CEO  White Lie = “We are acting in the best interests of shareholders.”

OWS needs to move really change the prevailing corporate structure and impact the economy, it needs to engage with and talk to the shareholders. Talk to your parents, uncles/aunts, cousins, friends who own shares of stocks either directly or indirectly and have them state loudly and clearly that they would rather have. Even better why not buy a share of stock. Just 1. Maybe you can all pitch in and then go to a shareholders meeting and let them know how you feel about the “best interests of shareholders.”

2.  Push to Make All Financial Institutions Partnerships

We should make all investment banks become reporting partnerships. Those personal guarantees would change everything in the banking industry. It would change the decision making process across the board.  There would be a moral hazard to every decision and it would be the purest having “skin in the game”

3.  Limit the Size of Student Loans to $2,000 per year

If the size of student loans are capped at a low level, you know what will happen to the price of going to a college or university ? It will plummet.  Colleges and universities will have to completely rethink what they are, what purpose they serve and who their customers will be. Will some go out of business? Absolutely. That is real world. Will the quality of education suffer? Given that TAs will still work for cheap, I doubt it. But the impact on the overall economy will be enormous. There is more student loan debt than credit card debt outstanding today. By relieving this burden at graduation, students will be able to participate in the economy

4.  Levy a simple share per share tax on every transaction.

The simplest way to change this is to place a very simple per share tax on every transaction. 10 cents a trade. Every share. Every option. Every Bond. Every currency transaction.  Every trade. It might just put the market back to the basics of what the stock and bond markets are supposed to be, a means of raising capital to support corporate growth and not a casino that it has now become.