As I was reading Sassen's _Cities in a World Economy_, a couple of questions
sprang to mind for the pen-l cognescenti.
1) In the late 1980's, 9 of the world's 10 largest banks were Japanese.
Was this the case not only b/c of super-powered capital accumulation
in E. Asia, but also b/c of the state-enginereed banking-keiretsu
networks in Japan (i.e. since Japanese TNC's and firms rely much less
on auto-financing and/or capital markets than do U.S. TNC's and firms,
the commercial banks have to be that much larger).
In light of the U.S. bank mergers in the mid-1990's (Security Pacific
and Bank of America, Chemical and Chase, NationsBank and ???), and
the devaluation of Japanese bank assets since the bubble burst in the
late 1980's (and now compounded by lots and lots of bad debt), have the
rankings of the world's big banks shifted substantially) ?
2) In 1990, a Swiss multinational concern by the name of "Asea Brown
Boveri" ranked seventh in the world in overseas assets, right behind
BP and right in front of another Swiss TNC, Nestle. I'd never heard of
it before. Says on the chart that it specializes in "industrial and
farm equipment." I thought International Harvester, John Deere (and
Komatsu ?) were the big global players in this market. Could anyone
tell me a thing or two about "Asea Brown Boveri" ?
Thanks in advance,
John Gulick
John Gulick
Ph. D. Candidate
Sociology Graduate Program
University of California-Santa Cruz
(415) 643-8568
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
