You may have seen a big outbreak in the academic literature and business media of defenses of liquidity for liquidity’s sake, evidently prompted by increased interest in and in the EU, implementation of transaction taxes as a way to tame speculation and secondarily raise revenues.

During an appearance on CNBC yesterday, Charlie Munger, deputy to billionaire investor Warren Buffett, had some harsh words for high-frequency trading, the practice used by huge financial firms to trade stocks in milliseconds. “Take the rapid trading by the computer geniuses with the computer

Demos released a new report showing how the rise of high frequency trading (HFT) comes at a massive cost to the real economy, despite Wall Street’s claims to the contrary.

Already, the biggest banks in the U.S. are huge. The largest 0.2 percent of institutions — just 12 mega-banks — control 69 percent of total bank assets. The 20 biggest banks hold assets equal to 84.5 percent of the nation’s entire economic output.

Heather McGhee discusses the racist strategy behind austerity economics.

Though technology and innovation have squeezed trading costs, the industry's profits are accounting for a bigger share of U.S. GDP, a former Goldman banker says, needlessly diverting some $635 bln from the broader economy. It lends credence to ideas like a transaction tax.

Eric Scheiderman is leading a seven state coalition to bring suit against the EPA for failing to address methane emissions from the oil and gas industry -- a violation of the Clean Air Act.

The Coalition for Sensible Safeguards has produced a report detailing five areas in which protections significantly help make the December and New Year festivities a safer and more joyful experience.

Before the Great Recession, the financial sector had consistently been eating up a greater and greater share of the economy. In 2007, it accounted for a whopping 40 percent of corporate profits. Before 1950, the financial sector made up less than 3 percent of GDP; now it makes up more than 8 percent

Why it's as if there were a tax on the non-financial portions of the economy that redistributes wealth to the financial sector.