In addition to the material losses sustained during the most recent financial crisis, the impact of this event was felt in many other ways. The loss of predictability, combined with rising uncertainties in times of financial crisis, resulted in an array of social and emotional burdens to individuals that eventually eroded their physical and mental health. In the process, their happiness was also negatively affected. With this in mind, the editors of Regulating Competition in Stock Markets set out to show how we are truly affected by the functioning of the financial system. What they discuss here is essential, if we intend on understanding how financial crises shape us and what it will take to achieve a more fair, transparent, and competitive market equilibrium moving forward. Engaging and informative, Regulating Competition in Stock Markets provides the first diagnosis of how well the financial system, and the stock market in particular, fits into the current social trend of health and happiness. The study on which it is based--which includes a collection of semi-annual survey responses from the spring of 2008 to the spring of 2010 from hundreds of business professionals and former graduate students--reveals that the global financial crisis has had a measurable and detrimental impact on health and happiness. With this established, the editors have taken the opportunity to examine the stock market as a primary example of a financial market and study from where these problems originate.

Throughout these pages, they focus on the characteristics that may cause unfair losses to investors, market instability, and financial crisis, as these elements are closely linked--from a financial standpoint--to the loss of human health and happiness. They identify certain monopolistic practices, especially as monopoly power is exercised through market manipulation, as the key source of these problems. Along the way, they also highlight systemic risk factors to financial markets and present potential regulatory proposals to prevent the utilization of monopoly power in illegal or unfair trading practices--with the goal of investor protection and crisis prevention. Divided into two comprehensive parts, this valuable resource addresses some of the most important issues in this field, with empirical analysis of the impact of financial crises on health and happiness to hundreds of securities litigation cases from around the world that provide solid evidence of both trade- and information-based market manipulation. While financial crises remain hard to predict, their international impact is clear. Regulating Competition in Stock Markets is an important step in attempting to prevent future market crises and improving the health and happiness of our society as a whole.