American stocks are consuming global markets

Sixteen years ago American stockmarkets reached their modern nadir. During the early 2000s European and emerging-market equities went on a bull run. By March 2008 America had entered recession and its financial crisis was under way. The country’s stocks accounted for less than 40% of the world’s total stockmarket capitalisation.

This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Egg-in-one-basket strategy”