Stupid question but could Rust skip monomorphization during development builds and use dynamic dispatch? I heard generics were often to blame for slow builds.
Ah, it makes a bit more sense when interpreted that way. So the capital that is described as being allocated is really the company's capital to the investor, not the investor's cash to the company.
Thanks for the elaborate reply but I was aware of all of this already. I wasn't questioning the utility of the stock market and understand its role as a price discovery mechanism and liquidity provider.
I was however questioning whether this sentence from the article was really accurate: "The function of the capital markets is to allocate capital".
I'd argue that trading existing shares, although it contributes to price discovery and liquidity, is not "capital allocation" (unless we're talking with respect to the buyer's capital like another commenter pointed out).
I understand the concept of liquidity and the reward mechanism you describe but it doesn't ultimately answer my question, which why is the process of buying an existing share called "capital allocation"? Let's say I buy a GOOG share from Larry Page. Is it the idea that I "allocated capital" to Larry Page's bank account? It seems to me like the correct thing to say would be that I provided liquidity to Larry, not that I allocated capital. Or is it the idea that I allocated some of my own capital to the stock market?
> The function of the capital markets is to allocate capital.
I never fully grasped this idea. I have no problem understanding that venture capitalists, angel investors or investors that buy shares at IPO do allocate capital. However, why is trading existing shares considered "allocating capital"?