As equity markets from Tokyo to New York enter more volatile times, it's worth taking a pause to reflect on the need for continued capital market reforms, particularly in China.
Indeed, just eight minutes after Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba made history with a blockbuster Initial Public Offering, New York equity markets seemingly hit their peak and have been trending downward ever since. The spread of Ebola and unrest in the Mideast as well as Hong Kong have added to market uncertainty. The storyline is no longer a straightforward one of China's and Chinese companies' rise.
As my Milken Institute colleague, Kevin Klowden, and I have written, the debut of Alibaba marked an amazing confluence of expectations, opportunities and pent up demand by investors still eager to find treasure in China, now the second largest economy in the world — some say it is already the largest based on the latest International Monetary Fund data — having surpassed Japan in 2010. Earlier this year, I had the honor to be named the first Asia Fellow of the Milken Institute, a California-headquartered nonpartisan economic policy think tank focused in part on driving change through innovations in capital markets.