But how is public ownership of firms compatible with ownership of firms being exchanged on markets?
Because governments can trade. E.g., if the governments of the Netherlands and Germany are looking to sell some firms they own, and the governments of Belgium and Luxembourg are giving competing offers to buy those firms, we have a market without the firms being privately owned.
I think of publicly traded firms as “publicly” (collectively) owned in the sense that many members of the public own shares of them directly or indirectly through things like ETFs and mutual funds. It gets complicated by the fact that ownership of most publicly traded companies is concentrated among a few stockholders.
If the capital is not privately owned (private property) but rather socially owned, for example public property (owned by a state entity), collective property (owned by a collective), cooperative property (owned by a co-op), etc...
But how is public ownership of firms compatible with ownership of firms being exchanged on markets?
Because governments can trade. E.g., if the governments of the Netherlands and Germany are looking to sell some firms they own, and the governments of Belgium and Luxembourg are giving competing offers to buy those firms, we have a market without the firms being privately owned.
I think of publicly traded firms as “publicly” (collectively) owned in the sense that many members of the public own shares of them directly or indirectly through things like ETFs and mutual funds. It gets complicated by the fact that ownership of most publicly traded companies is concentrated among a few stockholders.