A Borderless World of Hypermobile and Homeless Money? An Evaluation of Financial Flows in the Mutual Fund Industry

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to evaluate critically the hyperglobalist thesis that with the emergence of fund-manager capitalism, hypermobile and homeless capital increasingly roams a borderless world in search of investment opportunities. Drawing upon Standard and Poor’s Micropal data base to analyze financial flows in the mutual fund industries of nine developed market economies, evidence is found of some globally orientated funds as well as more rapid-fire trading, faster fund switching and the disembedding of capital ownership from place and individuals. However, little evidence is found that the apogee of financial globalization - a seamless world of hypermobile and homeless capital - has been achieved. Most assets in mutual funds are geographically ‘ring-fenced’, cannot be and are not speedily moved around the world and this money is concretely identifiable as belonging to individuals living in particular places. The paper thus concludes by cautioning against over-exaggerating the process of financial globalization.