A first try at understanding "sectors"--whether you call them 'economic,' 'industrial,' or 'business'

In this blog-entry I'm laying out some loose-ended notes toward building a sense of economic sectors, industrial sectors, or business sectors--whatever you may wish to call them, depending on the context in which your are making a single point--the sectoral point.

To initiate our thinking along this line, I'm going to select one possible way of designating a specific sector, as I build up my own personal email file with a myriad of newslinks that could possible constitute a category. The general file envelopes a set "Companies"--but I'm not seeking to constitute any sector by this designation. Rather, within the "Companies" file, I place all the emails that feature one specific company or another (usually). But between the specific companies files and the main collector file of the set, I've slowly generated a mid-level designation that could constitute a sector. Still, my designation is something of a grab bag the contents of which are analytically isolated from other grab bags.

"Financial and Accounting" sector

This mid-level designation for a sector, between top-level "Companies" and third-level for collector files for subsectors (occasionally) and then the bottom-level of specific companies. Within any subsector. Within the sector of "Financial and Accounting" companies. Within general file I maintain for "Companies."
You understand the filing and category-generating hierarchical system that is very much only a work in process. A file tree, you mite call it. Also, as to the method of creating the system and using it now for basic purposes trending/tending toward ontological categories ("ontocats"), still it is only part of a pragmatics toward understanding companies in an overall economics theory, taking into account how specific companies relate to a system of economic sectors (industrial sectors, business sectors).

Here's a list drawn up from what's actually lurking in my email files at present:

"Financial and Accounting" sector
Accounting - subsector
Banks - subsector
Private Equity - subsector
Stockbrokers - subsector

I don't pretend even to myself that the subsector list is complete, and I have the suspicion that a further subsector should be listed--namely, "Insurance - subsector." But I have been empirically confronted yet with emails specific to the Insurance industry's subsector (my guesstimate of its most responsible classification). In my pragmatics, I can decide the matter later one. Now let's drill down to a further level toward specificity regarding kinds of businesses according to there industrial subsectors and sectors, their economic sectors and subsectors according the focal activites at their center of each company.

"Financial and Accounting" sector

Accounting - subsector
Lehman
Merrill-Lynch

Banks - subsector
ICBC (China)
J.P. Morgan Chase (this company also has a "retail unit")
Royal Bank of Scotland
Santandar (Spain)
Fortis (Belgo-Dutch bank)

Private Equity - subsector
ABM Abro (Dutch, just merged with Barclays UK)
Blackstone UK
Kohlberg Kravits Roberts
New Century Financial

Stockbrokers - subsector
Goldmann Sachs

That's what I've got for this sector at present. There are several problems with it; the problem that most bothers me at present is my attempt to split into two cats the subsector of banks from that of I've labelled "private equity" companies--which are in good part specialist banks engaged in many large-scale activities that don't feature private banking of individuals (or at least only the "filty rich" whose accounts are enormous in dollars or other currency/ies compared to most middleclass to lowerclass bank acccount holders. Another feature of the commercial banks is that they are lenders to huge corporations, sometimes to governments and govt agencies working on large-scale projects. And the crowning feature that I'm trying to get a bead on, they are often what are called "holding companies."

Another problem is the separation I've made between "central banks" which often are not banks, but govt agencies that play a role in the control of the economy and the furtherance of govt policy (like Keynesian techniques) in regard to a national economy. Also, are specialized govt financial agencies such as the US's Securities Exchange Commision. And then there's the stockmarkets where the mentioned stockbrokerage firms are active. But, stockmarkets are themselves usually businesses that are owned, have a board of directors, and make a profit (or loss) annually.

So, many revisions are possible in regard to this initial example. More to come.