  As the decade turns, we reflect on nearly thirty years of successful
manipulation of the world's public equity markets. This reflection highlights a
few of the key enabling ingredients and lessons learned along the way. A
quantitative understanding of market impact and its decay, which we cover
briefly, lets you move long-term market prices to your advantage at acceptable
cost. Hiding your footprints turns out to be less important than moving prices
in the direction most people want them to move. Widespread (if misplaced) trust
of market prices -- buttressed by overestimates of the cost of manipulation and
underestimates of the benefits to certain market participants -- makes price
manipulation a particularly valuable and profitable tool. Of the many recent
stories heralding the dawn of the present golden age of misinformation, the
manipulation leading to the remarkable increase in the market capitalization of
the world's publicly traded companies over the past three decades is among the
best.
