The current crisis has been predicted for at least 30 years. What was not fully comprehended by those making the prediction in the 1970s was the insatiable demand for dollars by a rapidly industrializing world. Decades of printing, combined with globalization and financial engineering, secured a dominant place in the capital and goods markets for the currency. We remember the “megabuck”, millions. It then became the “gigabuck”, billions, before you knew it. Denominating assets and revenues in billions became almost a badge of honor in an electronic world where adding a few zeros was a trivial task. In the stock market, the definitions of large, mid and small capitalization stocks have drastically increased over recent decades. A handful of companies have even begun to challenge the $1 trillion market cap level. It is not all due simply to inflation. This has also been due to the emergence of a truly global marketplace. Brands such as Google, Apple, Amazon and Priceline are no longer restricted by geography. The size of their customer bases has dramatically increased, resulting in a much larger financial opportunity for those companies as well as others with the right combination of goods and services.
Posted on: Mon, 07 Oct 2013 04:11:55 +0000