Chapter 3
Stock markets
The world has changed dramatically in the last 30 years. The strong ideological opposition to capitalism has been replaced with stock markets in Moscow, Warsaw and Ho Chi Minh City. China, of all places, has two thriving stock exchanges, in Shanghai and Shenzhen, with over 3,000 companies listed. There are tens of millions of Chinese investors – more than in the UK – who can only be properly described as ‘capitalists’ given that they put at risk their savings on the expectations of a reward on their capital.
Over 140 countries now have stock markets. There must be something of great value offered by stock markets to pull so many societies towards them. Jiang Zemin, China’s former president, spoke with the fervour ...
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