Ignorant

The FT has an editorial this morning in which it argues that the London Stock Exchange needs a revamp, post Brexit.

The argument is insipid, at best, and is mainly a lament to the fact that London has not attracted tech stocks and ends up with mining companies instead. But underneath the existential angst there are suggestions.

These include the suggestion that rules be waived unilaterally to attract the right flotations. In other words, favours should be done.

There is also a strong recommendation that ‘dual listings’ be permitted, with two classes of share from one company being allowed, which is a mechanism invariably used to reinforce control by a power elite within a company.

No, it’s “dual-class” not “dual listing”.

Dual class is where there are two stocks, each with different voting rights and which can indeed be used to embed power with favoured insiders. Dual listing means being listed on two stock exchanges – say New York and London, or Oz and London/SA and London which is popular with miners and so on – at the same time.

This is the Tre Professori, the P³, who would tell us how financial markets should work who gets this wrong. It’s just flat out ignorance which isn’t a good start to an analysis, is it?