Nov 17th 2011 | from The World In 2012 print edition
Fifteen years ago Silicon Valley’s IPO boom was part-and-parcel of a wider boom in public companies. Soviet and Chinese Communists abandoned five-year plans in favour of stockmarket listings (President Jiang Zemin called the NASDAQ “ the crown jewel of all that is great about America”). Wall Street powerhouses such as Goldman Sachs rejected their cosy partnerships in order to go public. And management gurus argued that public companies, with their emphasis on focus, speed and efficiency, would sweep all before them, reconstructing the emerging world (which part of the world/ countries are referred to) in the rich world ’s image.
Today, the public company is in trouble: the organisation that has been at the heart of capitalism for the past 150 years faces a loss of confidence in its Anglo-Saxon heartland and the rise of powerful challengers abroad. The number of companies listed on the major American stock exchanges has been declining relentlessly in recent years, from a peak of just over 7,000 in 1997 to just over 4,000 now(...)
