Google ditches underwriters, makes their IPO available via auction. It's about time. The shenanigans that underwriters pull, both in terms of their margin and in terms of their allocation of initial shares to privileged clients, are long overdue for the dustbin. If we can make all IPOs public auctions, and make all secondary market transactions available to everyone in realtime, and convert all securities - especially derivatives like options over to decimal trading, we could look forward to more efficient and democratic primary and secondary markets.