The Indomitable Investor: Why a Few Succeed in the Stock Market When Everyone Else Fails

A Global Problem

In the summer of 2011, months before Jean-Claude Trichet was preparing to retire as the head of the European Central Bank, he spoke at an economics conference in Aix-en-Provence, France. At the time, the European sovereign debt crisis was in full bloom. Greece and Portugal and Italy were feared to be near some state of economic collapse. Yet, Trichet said that what was needed were serious advances in the way systemically important institutions, including nonbanking institutions, are regulated. “The major revelation of the last four years was the fragility of the global economy,” Trichet said. “Strengthening resilience is absolutely essential given the fragility exhibited by the global economy.”10

Indeed, it remains unclear how, if at all, the global economy has been strengthened since the credit crisis. It is unclear how, if at all, the existing regulatory regimes in the United States and around the world are equipped to deal with a global market. This is a potentially dangerous issue that should be addressed by national governments convening a summit to discuss how to deal with global companies operating in a business environment defined by different regulatory regimes and even accounting standards. The gaps in the U.S. regulatory system are likely miniscule compared to what can be accomplished on the world stage. Perhaps nations need to consider forming an international regulatory body to monitor companies that are so large, and so diverse, as to endanger the ...