>The vast majority of all value is created through the exchange of already-existing assets.
Could you explain that? Not having studied much economics, I would defined "value" the net sum of assets across society. From there, I would say that no value is created through exchange, only through production. The purpose of financial markets would then be to optimize production, not in an end in themselves.
The theory of comparative advantage ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_advantage ) tells us that optimal production requires exchange. If you prohibited the exchange of existing assets, it would not be possible to achieve the same total production regardless of who you assigned to produce what. (You could of course have everyone keep producing what they were producing for the trade-is-possible world, but if you did that, nearly 100% of all production would be thrown away as waste. Coal is valuable in small quantities as a heat source, but it's valuable to power plants only because they can sell electricity, and it's valuable to mine owners only because they can sell it to power plants.)
This is completely wrong. I sell stocks because I need cash. I make a loan because someone else needs cash. Liquidity preferences matter, volatility preferences matter, both parties can gain value.
Could you explain that? Not having studied much economics, I would defined "value" the net sum of assets across society. From there, I would say that no value is created through exchange, only through production. The purpose of financial markets would then be to optimize production, not in an end in themselves.