The International Competitiveness of U.S. Capital Markets
The Committee on Capital Markets Regulation (better known as the “Paulson Committee”) issued an Interim Report (the “Report”) on November 30, 2006, concluding that “the United States is losing its leading competitive position as compared to stock markets and financial centers abroad.” This report was quickly followed by a study commissioned by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Senator Charles Schumer and prepared by McKinsey & Co., which reached similar conclusions…
As evidence in support of its conclusion that “the U.S. is losing its leading competitive position,” the Report cites the decline in the U.S.'s share of global IPOs, the migration of trading volume to less intensively regulated securities markets (London and Hong Kong in particular), and the increasing preference of foreign firms to raise capital in the United States in private rather than public markets (thereby avoiding most of the SEC’s mandated disclosure requirements and their accompanying liability potential).
