the stockholders themselves are not people, they are funds and companies and banks, and their investment decisions are probably made by software. their stockholders are also organizations, not human beings, all the way up the line. these are not personal investors managing their fortunes, they are bureaucratic machines that see the companies they invest in as black boxes that generate revenue, only short-term profit and loss are considered, not national interest or ethical issues, or even long-term financial performance and viability. the whole system is so impersonal and automated, so removed from true human needs, that it not only is outside human control, it also attracts very human parasites, professional managers, who only consider their own careers, not their professions. a classic market cannot operate in this environment, it is intrinsically unstable.

yes, capitalism and markets do function according to natural rules, but they also evolve and change to adapt to changing conditions, and we have little control over that. what's going on in the financial capitals of the world (actually, in the cyberspace that connects them all) is so far removed from what we think of as entrepreneurial free enterprise
that applying simple models (like "supply and demand", or "public vs private")is simply infantile thinking. the financial machine is out of control, it is decadent, and if you watch it thrash about helplessly trying to sort itself out, you can see it simply does not care about us. it doesn't even know we are here.