March 23, 2007.
I want to pass along this article from the Boston Globe, Shifting financial Winds, written by Joseph Fuller, the CEO of Monitor Group.
His topic is the shrinking relative influence of America’s capital markets and professional standards in the global economy.
Over the last 25 years, foreign companies anxious to be traded on American exchanges have adopted U.S. financial reporting standards. We Americans have exported such new forms of capital as private equity and venture capital. Executive compensation at foreign multinationals has followed American precedents. So have approaches to board governance, securities and antitrust enforcement regulation. …American professional-services firms — in investment banking, law, accounting and consulting — have shaped global practice. …Americans have benefited from the United States’ global ascendancy in corporate finance, strategy and governance. U.S. policy has emerged as the world’s “reserve policy,” much as the dollar emerged as its reserve currency. That position is now in peril. In 2000, 50 percent of initial public stock offerings in the world were listed in America; in 2005, only 5 percent. …
We should listen to what Joe has to say. It’s good to be rich and powerful but it takes work to stay that way. We need to quit whining about the global economy and get back to work.
JR
