I think of myself as a globalist and I'm against the concept of the nation state. Except for every four years when the World Cup is on (football, cricket or rugby), then I want South Africa to win. For the rest of the time I hate nationalism, border controls, ethnic rivalry, trade barriers, local currencies, local political elites, and visas. So I don't like people like Donald Trump. Let's make the whole world great again. Come on, we are one species!
Conversely, I really like the way that financial markets are increasingly interconnected and how huge global corporations tap capital markets around the world and are accessible to investors in every corner of the earth. As Frank Sinatra (should have) crooned, you must make it here, and you must make it everywhere.
So I'm mightily impressed that Alibaba, one of China's top two companies, already listed in New York with a market capitalisation of over $400 billion, now plans to list in its home market in Hong Kong too.
Alibaba was only founded 20 years ago, when Jack Ma and his friends started a business-to-business marketplace in his Hangzhou apartment. The New York listing in 2014 was the world's largest initial public offering, raising $25 billion. The plan is to do the same in Hong Kong later this year, raising as much as $20 billion this time.