[lbo-talk] A highly critical take on Fitch

[Seth Ackerman]

Doug Henwood wrote:

> Nathan Newman wrote:
>
>> Yes, the lack of direct bank
>> ownership of equities in the 20th century made US corporate structures
>> different from much of the world, but one of the results was 
>> precisely the
>> mega-corporate structures where firms didn't even need much capital 
>> from the
>> markets since they could raise it internally-- a point I believe a 
>> certain
>> Doug Henwood has emphasized in questioning the centrality others have 
>> given
>> to the role of Wall Street.
>
>
> The fundraising role of Wall Street is exaggerated; its real function 
> is the organization of ownership and disciplining management. I've got 
> a paper around somewhere that points out that dispersed ownership, as 
> in the predominantly English-speaking countries, is a more hostile 
> environment for social democracy, since it's pitiless in its demands 
> for cost-cutting and labor flexibility. Ownership in the soc dem 
> countries is more concentrated. The comparison works for Canada and 
> the US; Canada is both more concentrated and more social democratic.
>

The ne plus ultra of this, I think, is Sweden, where huge swaths of the 
industrial landscape have been owned or controlled by the Wallenberg 
dynasty.

Seth