WhatFinger

I love capitalism, and consider it to be, warts and all, the best and most equitable form of economics ever invented. But I detest crony capitalism, and am no fan of monopolies.

Monolithic Monopoly?

By Jim ONeill ——--August 30, 2021

American Politics, News | CFP Comments | Reader Friendly | Subscribe | Email Us

Monolithic Monopoly, The Vanguard Group Inc., Blackrock Inc., State Street Corporation
"That sounds to me like a money-making operation for Pfizer," Trump… told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo. "Think of the money involved. An extra shot … How good a business is that? If you're a pure businessman, you'd say, 'you know what, let's give them another shot…." "You wouldn't think you would need a booster," Trump said. "You know, when these first came out, they were good for life. Then they were good for a year or two. And I could see the writing on the wall, I could see the dollar signs in their eyes of that guy that runs Pfizer." -- Eliza Relman "Trump dismisses COVID-19 booster shots as a 'money-making operation' for Pfizer"  August 18, 2021
"I do think that Pfizer…I will say this, the FDA is bureaucratically run, would have taken five years to get it approved, would have never even had it if it weren't for me. And I learned things. The FDA is virtually controlled by Pfizer. Pfizer has control, not Johnson and Johnson, not Moderna, but Pfizer has control over the FDA. It's not a good thing." -- President Donald J. Trump "Hugh Hewitt Show" August 26, 2021
President Trump appears to be unhappy with the pharmaceutical company Pfizer. Fair enough.  An obvious question I asked myself was, "Who controls Pfizer?" I searched for the top shareholders of Pfizer with my browser, and found that the top three shareholders in Pfizer are: The Vanguard Group Inc., Blackrock Inc., and State Street Corporation. Then I checked to see who the top shareholder in Blackrock Inc. is, and the answer is The Vanguard Group Inc.
BlackRock, itself is…owned by shareholders. Who are those shareholders? We come to a strange conclusion. The biggest shareholder is Vanguard. But now [it] gets murky. Vanguard is a private company and we cannot see who the shareholders are. Bill Sardi
Vanguard is also the top shareholder in State Street Corp. Things were starting to look a little dodgy by this point, but I'm a free market capitalist, so I figured "Vanguard's making some big bucks, good for them." Then I researched the top shareholders in Johnson & Johnson, and found that the top three are: The Vanguard Group Inc., Blackrock Inc., and State Street Corp.  And Johnson & Johnson controls a lot of brands. I found that five of the top ten mutual fund holders of Moderna appear to be Vanguard subsidiaries. In addition, four of the top ten mutual fund holders of AstraZeneca appear to be related to Vanguard.   I say "appear" because although the name "Vanguard" appears in the corporate titles, that may just be coincidence…but I have my suspicions. Things were starting to look more than a little sketchy to me now, so I started researching all sorts of different companies – and I found the same names kept popping up: The Vanguard Group Inc., Blackrock Inc., and State Street Corp. To be sure, other corporations appeared, such as Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and Berkshire Hathaway, for example – but it turns out that among the top shareholders of Morgan Stanley Goldman Sachs, and Berkshire Hathaway are, you guessed it in one: The Vanguard Group Inc., Blackrock Inc., and State Street Corp.

The Vanguard Group, Blackrock, and State Street are listed among the top two or three shareholders in:

                 

Support Canada Free Press

Donate

Who exactly owns The Vanguard Group Inc.

Well, you get the idea, right?  (And believe me, the above list is only a partial list – the tip of the iceberg).  If you really want to get lost in the rabbit warren, you can start connecting the dots between which shareholders control which companies, which control what other companies, and so on.  Knock yourself out, but try not to get a headache while you're at it.   A concern of mine at this point is who exactly owns The Vanguard Group Inc., who are the folks who are profiting from all these shares?  Ah, that's the question, isn't it?
…the stocks of the world's largest corporations are owned by the same institutional investors. They all own each other. This means that "competing" brands, like Coke and Pepsi aren't really competitors at all, since their stock is owned by exactly the same investment companies, investment funds, insurance companies, banks and in some cases, governments. This is the case, across all industries. As [the Dutch Group Vrouwen Voor Vrijheid (Women for Freedom)] says: "The smaller investors are owned by larger investors. Those are owned by even bigger investors. The visible top of this pyramid shows only two companies whose names we have often seen…they are Vanguard and BlackRock. The power of these two companies is beyond your imagination. Not only do they own a large part of the stocks of nearly all big companies but also the stocks of the investors in those companies. This gives them a complete monopoly. A Bloomberg report states that both these companies in the year 2028, together will have investments in the amount of 20 trillion dollars. That means that they will own almost everything. -- Bill Sardi "Who Runs The World? Blackrock and Vanguard"  

Capitalism and Crony Capitalism

I love capitalism, and consider it to be, warts and all, the best and most equitable form of economics ever invented.  But I detest crony capitalism, and am no fan of monopolies.  Might be that We the People need a new "Trust Buster" like Teddy Roosevelt to ride into town and clean house.  Just saying. We can do nothing of good in the way of regulating and supervising these corporations until we fix clearly in our minds that we are not attacking the corporations, but endeavoring to do away with any evil in them. We are not hostile to them; we are merely determined that they shall be so handled as to subserve the public good. We draw the line against misconduct, not against wealth. -- President Theodore Roosevelt
Subscribe

View Comments
Jim ONeill——

Born June 4, 1951 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Served in the U.S. Navy from 1970-1974 in both UDT-21 (Underwater Demolition Team) and SEAL Team Two.  Worked as a commercial diver in the waters off of Scotland, India, and the United States.  Worked overseas in the Merchant Marines.  While attending the University of South Florida as a journalism student in 1998 was presented with the “Carol Burnett/University of Hawaii AEJMC Research in Journalism Ethics Award,” 1st place undergraduate division.  (The annual contest was set up by Carol Burnett with money she won from successfully suing a national newspaper for libel).  Awarded US Army, US Navy, South African, and Russian jump wings.  Graduate of NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School, 1970).  Member of Mensa, China Post #1, and lifetime member of the NRA and UDT/SEAL Association.

VIEW Comments

Sponsored