Europe has eclipsed the US in stock market value for the first time since the first WWI

[SoCalDem]

got to scroll down a bit for the story..


http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct=us/1-0&fp=4612a7da24d5a02f&ei=f1kSRoGWBYOMoQL31vnoAw&url=http%3A//www.finfacts.com/irelandbusinessnews/publish/article_10009645.shtml&cid=1115051149&sig2=jVOeHHnPAZcstP5PQmpPOw

Tuesday Newspaper Review - Irish Business News and International ...
FinFacts Ireland, Ireland - 5 hours ago
The Financial Times reports that Europe has eclipsed the US in stock market value for the first time since the first world war in another sign of the slipping of the global dominance of American capital markets.

Europe’s 24 stockmarkets, including Russia and emerging Europe, saw their capitalisation rise to $15,720bn (€11,819bn) at the end of last week, according to Thomson Financial data. That exceeded the $15,640bn market value of the US.

The rise of the euro against the dollar, growth of east European markets such as Russia and stock market outperformance spurred by improving profitability have seen Europe close a long-held gap with the US. Ian Harnett at Absolute Strategy Research, who identified the move, said this marked a “seismic shift” in markets.

The last time Europe eclipsed the US in market capitalisation was likely to have been before the first world war, said Mike Staunton, stock-market historian at London Business School. The shift mirrors a trend in the debt world, where European activity has caught up, and in some cases overtaken the US.

European shares have outperformed the US, with their market capitalisation rising 160 per cent since the start of 2003 in dollar terms, said Thomson Financial. That compared with a 70.5 per cent rise for the US stock market. Over that time the euro has risen 26 per cent against the dollar.

snip

[EST]

1. Although I do not consider the stock market as much more

than large scale gambling for the ultra greedy, I find it interesting that the US has finally proven to be the ignorant colonial backwater that many Europeans have considered us to be.

[aquart]

2. Would you invest in BushCo?

It just occurred to me that Europe may be where unions are strongest. Is that still true?

[pampango]

3. Good for them. Can be considered another milestone in their

recovery from the devastation of WWII. The EU has been expanding a lot in recent years. Their population is much larger than ours and they are quite prosperous.

Congratulations!

[gristy]

4. Russia is part of Europe?

I don't think so.

[SoCalDem]

6. Russia has always had close ties to Europe. When it was the USSR,

the eastern part was considered part of Asia, though .

[Nederland]

5. You all are looking at it wrong

The population of Europe is 700+ million, the population of the US is 300+ million. In other words, on a per capitia basis the European stock market is almost half the size the US market.

[Broadslidin]

7. With the U.S. Dropping 6 Places to 7th in Information Technology.....

As reported by the World Economic Forum.
(Denmark has achieved First Place.)

The French Set New Rail Speed Record
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6521295.stm
The BBC also includes exciting audio and video
in this report.

Meanwhile,
the pitiful U.S. rail service rattles slowly
along on freight lines
and
if you discover an airline worker, Fire 'um...!

[SoCalDem]

9. My friend took a rail trip a few weeks ago to Washington state

They were FIVE HOURS late in arriving, and on the way back, they were so irritated, that they got OFF the train, took a cab and rented a car to drive the rest of the way home..

[TahitiNut]

8. I quibble about "value" being the equivalent of "market capitalization."

"Market capitalization" is the artifical measure of the fictitious price of all the outstanding stock of a company based on the last trade of any shares of that stock. Thus, if a corporation has ten million shares of stock outstanding and the last trade of 100 shares was for the price of $25/share, then the "market capitalization" of the company is said to be $250 million. The obvious problem is that there's no way in hell that all ten million shares would get such a price on the open market if they were all offered for sale at the same time. It's a fiction.

[SoCalDem]

10. All I know is that our "international" parts of the 401-k increased

36% last quarter..and a few of the others dropped..

whatever they are doing over there, it's Okee-dokie with me :)