What do stock markets do? They collect capital geographically for corporations and startup (IPOs) companies while also providing a liquid market for investors who want to withdraw without a significant penalty.
Stock markets around the world have recently been "demutualizing" (going public) to globalize and update their technology infrastructure. The merger between NYSE and Euronext was probably the most significant move towards a new "World Wide Wall Street".
But another factor is the infosphere - the media and financial information system that provides the data, gossip and news that run these markets. Rubert Murdoch and his NewsCorp behemoth recently bought Dow-Jones - one of the most significant financial news organizations in the world and owner of the Wall Street Journal for a staggering $5 billion dollars (Dan Gross wrote that Murdoch paid a "jerk premium" of "somewhere between $760 million and $1.22 billion"). Recently, Thomson, the Canadian media conglomerate began buying Reuters, the founder of the electronic trading environment with Money Monitor Rates back in the 1970s, and the reigning trading communications system. GE who owns CNBC, the dominant financial television news network, considered the purchase but declined.
Bottom Line: As markets continue to go global, Fox is going to be there competing in the financial infostructure of globalized electronic money. God help us all.
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