Treasury Secretary Paulson is on a mission to make US capital markets more competitive. He wants to deregulate and tidy up existing red tape, make it easier for US businesses to be compliant and also make it easier for foreign companies to do business here. Such efforts warm our hearts.
But Paulson's campaign to raise political and public awareness of the undue burdens on the typical US public business has had an unintended consequence: it's scaring people. Over the last several weeks we've read numerous articles making the stunning—and erroneous—claim that the US has lost its competitiveness. Further, that we should be panicked that some companies are choosing to list in foreign markets rather than the granddaddy NYSE.
We laud Paulson's initiatives, but the scare tactics are being misconstrued. The US is still—by far—the most attractive and safest place for companies to list their stock and do business. The Treasury Secretary's improvements would be improving an already superior thing. Here are a few notes, summarized from a cogent editorial in today's Financial Times. (Though, we decry the plea for even more regulation at the end.)
Wall Street Need Not Embark on a Race to the Bottom
By Jeffrey Garten, The Wall Street Journal
https://www.ft.com/cms/s/25cf6d90-82e9-11db-a38a-0000779e2340.html
So, Paulson's reforms are reforming an already superior US marketplace. But superior or not, improvement is still good.
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*The content contained in this article represents only the opinions and viewpoints of the Fisher Investments editorial staff.