The article suggests Goldman makes money by executing trades for the house before executing trades requested by clients (front running). I wonder what would happen if all Goldman clients left Goldman and executed their trades elsewhere. Perhaps all firms executing these complicated trades on behalf of clients are front running.
What if people purchased stock directly from corporations without a broker? In that sense, investors would truly invest in corporations for the long term. Would that serve as a closer approximation to pure capitalism than program trading? Just a thought…
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/businessdesk/2013/07/goldman-profits-double-but-how.html
Efficient Minds™ 
Goldman continues to impress me with their earnings, but I always thought most of their profit came from M&A underwriting activities and hedge fund trading.
There’s a company called Loyal3 based in San Francisco that is trying to make a case for people buying shares of a company directly in small increments and have the purchased company pay the trading fees. Their case is that the stock ownership creates a subconcious habit of returning to those stores more often because of their attachment via shares owned. They’re also trying to make owning stock very simple for people that may not normally buy stock.