3. The Death and Resurrection of Capital Markets

In this chapter, we examine how capital markets have evolved, how they have contributed to the growth of global trade and international currency stability. We describe how the structure of capital markets, increasing complexity and lack of transparency has contributed to various crises, growing inequality and a lack of accountability in large corporations, which are becoming more powerful than nations in the twenty-first century. We posit that today’s capital markets structures are flawed and favour exaggerated growth of already large corporations, at the expense of smaller businesses. We also consider how technology, platform and ecosystem economics are likely to impact capital markets, as banks lose their stranglehold, and participation in the benefits is no longer restricted to larger companies.