Majia
Writes: Ownership of the world’s resources, including stock in the
powerful industries of banking and energy, tends to be very
consolidated. Globally, in 2006, prior to the Great Recession, one
percent of the world’s population was believed to control forty percent
of the world’s wealth.[i]
One analysis of 43,000 global corporations revealed a core group of 1318 corporations with interlocking ownerships.[ii]
The study, conducted by Stefania Vitali, James B. Glattfelder, and
Stefano Battiston, used network analysis to explicate the degree of
consolidation of corporate control. Their findings revealed
unprecedented global consolidation of corporate ownership and control.
Each of the core 1318 corporations had ownership links to two or more
other companies, although most were linked to twenty other corporations.
The 1318 corporations owned through their shares the majority of blue
chip and manufacturing companies, controlling sixty percent of global
revenues. Further analysis revealed a tightly linked “super entity” of
147 corporations, mainly in finance, with interconnected ownership.
Consequently, less than one percent of corporations essentially
controlled forty percent of the entire network.
Furthermore, the study
found that 734 “top holders of stock accumulate 80% of the control over
the value of all TNCs.” The authors conclude: “this means that network
control is much more unequally distributed than wealth. In particular,
the top ranked actors hold a control ten times bigger than what could be
expected based on their wealth.”[iii]
See this chart of interlocking corporate ownership found by my student Lauren http://occupyeducated.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/corporateconnection.jpg
[i] 40% of world's wealth owned by 1% of population. CBCNews (December 5, 2006), http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2006/12/05/globalwealth.html and James Randerson. World's richest 1% own 40% of all wealth, UN report discovers. The Guardian (December 6, 2006), http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2006/dec/06/business.internationalnews.
[ii] S.
Vitali, J.B. Glattfelder, and S. Battiston, “The Network of Global
Corporate Control,” Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
(arXiv:1107.5728v1 [q-fin.GN], 28 Jul 2011), available
http://www.scribd.com/doc/72201631/Network-of-Global-Corporate-Control-Swiss-Federal-Institute-of-Technology-in-Zurich.
[iii] S. Vitali, J.B. Glattfelder, and S. Battiston Page 36.
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