The European continent has always played a major role in global history, leading for a good part of the development of human civilization, at least since there is a record and in numerous fields, such as innovation, which allowed European companies to achieve universal statutes that were lasting over time, until clear at the end of the last century. When American companies, based on much higher financial markets, surpassed without a doubt the colossuses of European industry, becoming the owners of “markets”, in spite of economic cycles that sharply punished the bonds in the North American indices, the certainty is that the flexibility of the largest economy in the world, derived from the political mentality but also from the ordinary citizen, has allowed the regeneration of the business fabric so that the survivors are even stronger in relation to international competition.
In recent years and after a clear strategy of taking advantage of the functions of capitalism, namely in the financial markets, China has started to take advantage of all its potential, creating economic and financial colossuses such as the Alibaba group. The most interesting and problematic for Europeans, in particular, is that Chinese companies are only now “waking up”, in the sense that although many are already at the top, in relation to the potential of the business fabric, there is still a lot of market share that can be won, which will result in an even greater dilution of the importance of European companies in the global panorama. An unmistakable example of such mediocre behaviour is in the register of Stoxx50, an index of the leading companies in various sectors in the euro area. However, the Stoxx50 has not yet managed to hit the pre-financial highs of 2007/8, while for example, the S&P500 has already broken them in 2013 and since then, every year without exception has registered new historical highs, more than doubling the previous maximum value reached in October 2007.
