Globalization Gap, The: How the Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Left Further Behind

Chapter 5. Corporate Wealth and Hedging

	The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.
	--ARCHILOCHUS (c. 710–676 B.C.) Fragment 103

The rules and opportunities of hedging are different for rich individuals and corporations.

Pyramids of economic opportunity have become corporate pyramids, and the rich tend to become incorporated to protect themselves. This is in no small part a consequence of the revolt of the rich, led particularly by the Reagan-Thatcher privatization and deregulation policies of the 1980s. The freedom from restrictions first benefited multinational companies: They sped up the global economy, which in turn gained momentum with the Internet-led dot-com boom of the 1990s. Competitive pyramids of influence became ...