An Emerging Global Exchange

Today's Wall Street Journal contains a piece written by Bernard Wysocki Jr. and Aaron Lucchetti on the globalization of financial markets. The article focuses on the proposed merger between the New York Stock Exchange and Euronext NV, describing it as "the first trans-Atlantic linkup of stock and derivatives markets."

One concern raised by the authors is the question of who will regulate these increasingly international markets and more specifically, who will be in charge in the event of a market crisis. Among the potential obstacles the authors describe to the effective regulation of an international financial market is a phenomenon identified by Shoghi Effendi as a major obstacle to the global unification of society; namely, nationalism. Wysocki and Lucchetti write:

Right now there's no formal legal framework for regulating exchanges that cross national borders. Regulators around the world are scrambling to establish ties and figure out how to proceed. The process isn't easy: Most regulators aren't only national officials, they tend to be nationalistic, believing their rules are better than those of other countries.

The article points to the model of collaboration between market regulators in the different countries in Europe that make up the Euronext Exchange as a potential solution. Perhaps most strikingly, the authors, in addressing the need for increased cooperation between national market regulators, write that "[o]ne senior regulator in the U.S. compared the cooperation with that seen between different state regulators who have different agendas but often work together under an umbrella group, the North American Securities Administrators Association." This remarkable statement is reminiscent of the following passage from one of Shoghi Effendi's World Order letters:

You can best serve your country, was `Abdu'l-Bahá's rejoinder to a high official in the service of the federal government of the United States of America, who had questioned Him as to the best manner in which he could promote the interests of his government and people, if you strive, in your capacity as a citizen of the world, to assist in the eventual application of the principle of federalism underlying the government of your own country to the relationships now existing between the peoples and nations of the world.