Chapter 7. ...And France Is a State: How to Invest Internationally in the Age of Globalization

I have argued over the years that markets in the age of globalization are becoming more alike and that prices between localities are coming into balance. That’s good news for the world and not-so-good news for investors. We investors like differences. With difference, there is opportunity. Opportunity suggests a chance—a chance to win, or to try to win. But a world in balance smells of everybody doing the same thing all at once, an odor of equal and average performance.

And what’s to blame for this global sameness? Two things, predominantly: the emergence of the large-cap multinational corporation and the global push for freer trade. As more locations ...

Get Cocktail Economics: Discovering Investment Truths from Everyday Conversations now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.