[wyager]

The obvious answer is that wall street has never been in a state of no regulation; at least, not for a very long time.

When you have a bunch of poorly thought out regulation, much of it designed to exclude competition, that's when things go bad.

The cool thing about the internet is that regardless of what you or the SEC or John Q. Public thinks is a bad idea or improper, people are free to experiment with it anyway. Technology has outpaced the ability of governments to proscribe voluntary interaction.