No exchange is an island

This weekend's Economist magazine features Malta's Stock Exchange and discusses the "remarkable returns for a tiny bourse on Europe's southern fringe". From The Economist:

A former military chapel overlooking Valletta's harbour may seem an unlikely home for a stock exchange. But this is Malta, a tiny Mediterranean island where military might and religion have long been defining influences: the Romans, Turks, Spanish, Crusaders, French and British, not to mention pirates, have all left their mark.

Now Malta has grand hopes for its financial-services industry, which is drawing increased attention from abroad...But Malta is a tiny place. The MSE lists only 13 stocks. Mr Guillaumier says there is too much money chasing too few investments in Malta, which has a population of just 392,000. Many locals have parked their money abroad. One of his goals is to drum up more listings by local companies, not easy given the number of family-owned firms. In an era of consolidation, the independence of the MSE (owned by the government) is far from guaranteed...

From the same edition, The blog in the Corporate Machine