[poincaredisk]

Is it? If I buy EvilCorp stock from you for $1000000 how does that help EvilCorp? Assuming just a few rational actors, stock price should (in theory) stay roughly the same, near the "real" market value. Of course, if everyone did that, and EvilCorps couldn't even IPO, then it would matter, but that's a big if. But if that's the goal, we should strive to ban EvilCorps instead.

[Version467]

EvilCorp probably has unissued shares. A rising market cap thus gives them a lot of leverage to achieve their goals. They could pay employees, borrow against those shares, raise more capital with a secondary offering, etc.

Also, if EvilCorp is worth $10, I could just buy it and stop all the EvilActions.