globalization & Pynchon?

[calbert at tiac.net]

Kurt-Werner Pörtner:

> "Globalization" is not a question of import and export, but of the
> growing interdependence of the worldwide acting stock markets.
> 
> Saskia Sassen: "Technimetrics reports that at the end of  1997 25
> cities ruled  83 % of the worldwide value of capital. These 25 cities
> fixed 48 % of the global capitalization of the stock markets... But
> the >global< market is concentrated at 6 or 7 big cities. London, New
> York and Tokyo are managing one third of the stocks of the investment
> fonds worldwide. London and New York are controlling more than a half
> of the worldwide foreign exchange trading." My re-translation from
> German, cited of: Saskia Sassen, Machtbeben. Wohin führt die
> Globalisierung?, Stuttgart/München 2000, S. 117.

The principal reason for this concentration is that these are the 
exchanges with the most transparent regulations. People in 2nd 
world countries seek safe havens for their capital - such is not 
usually found in the local bourses which tend to suffer from high 
levels of regulation, political and currency risk, as well as restricted 
liquidity.......

love,
cfa