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World Inc. Excerpts
Chapter 9:
Money Matters — The Social Force in Products
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About a mile deep beneath the surface of the Pacific Ocean sits a vast array of riches ancient mariners never noticed, and never knew to look for. Since I began writing this book in l998, scientists have discovered more than 30,000 dormant volcanoes dubbed "sea-mounts." These immense treasure troves are teeming with exotic creatures and abounding with underexamined forms of life. These mini-cities provide a superabundance of warm waters, attracting plenty of life to the area from afar. I think of these new domains on our old earth often, especially when I scrutinize the stock market, dredging for new investments. If only Jacques Cousteau could have seen them.
More than a hundred hammerhead sharks pass by a given sea-mount in a single day. Coral reefs fan up several feet a mere seventy-five miles off the coast of Monterey, California. Large, deep-water sponges populate these curiously pure white mounds. Some of these sponges are so large they house three crabs at a time in their creases. Mullet, snapper and shrimp-like krill all make a killing in this environment rich with resources and possibility.
These vanquished volcanoes spawn all kinds of new life, much like the squandered value of the many Fortune 500 companies no longer with us. When we started this book, we reflected on how nearly two thirds of all Fortune 500 firms have deceased since NASA began spawning small computers and heat-resistant materials in l972. They either died, or were consumed by bigger and "better" corporate entities. Yet we did not know enough, then, to talk about what such creative destruction in global markets yields our new S Frontier — where swiftness and severity reign. We can now talk about these things, in the rich inviting metaphor of sea-mounts.
Sea-mounts constitute new avenues for upward growth in the sea, much like the deterioration of failing company parts are reused and revamped for the better by others in their upswing. Since so much of the action at a sea-mount is invisible to those of us living in the 19 percent of the earth not yet ocean, it reminds me of the odds of discovering a really good investment. You need new and special tools to uncover such hidden value.
In my talks about our new global equity culture, I often refer to rating agencies as helicopters hovering above the crimes of corporate self-regulation. They help us police our investments, and there are plenty of them on the beat. At last count, I found 74 legitimate rating groups, most with a global reach.
I now believe these rating groups offer us more than policing. By examining with several in my group all of the colorful life of the many different rating agencies in preparation for writing this chapter, I began to sense that the world of third-party corporate ratings is as rich and diverse as these sea-mounts. Many of these groups are fiercely independent, and influential. They each offer the Social Response capitalist new forms of life that magnify the color, appeal, and market consequences of ordinary multinationals.
Some International Currencies
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Ringgit (Malaysia)
Rupee (India)
Dollar (Australia)
