All though I like the article and the points you raise very much, here I disagree with you. The purpose of the stock market is to raise capital (provide liquidity) for companies to produce goods. A result of that purpose is the valuation of a share of stock for a company. But that WAS not the purpose of the market.

The purpose of the market NOW is to allow insiders to buy and sell quickly based on their inside information and make fortunes on trading, rather than providing liquidity for produciton.