No matter where you fall on the political spectrum, you probably agree that the global elite have too much power and influence.  It has been said that “money is power”, and today that seems to be more true than ever.  Those at the very, very top of the pyramid dictate the rules of the game for the rest of us, and there isn’t too much that the rest of us can do about it.  When we talk about how the global elite dominate our lives, the focus tends to be on how they influence national governments, but the truth is that is one of the areas where the global elite have the least control.  I know that may sound strange, but I believe that things will become clearer by the end of this article.

 

I would submit that corporations are the primary vehicle that the elite use to control our lives.  In fact, many global corporations are now larger and more powerful than most national governments, and collectively the network of global corporations that dominates the planet is far larger and far more powerful than any single national government.

 

A number of years ago, a remarkable study was conducted that closely examined the interconnecting relationships of major corporations all over the world.  That study discovered that a network of 1,318 enormous companies dominated the global economy, and it also found that 147 colossal corporations at the core of that web formed a “super-entity” that controlled 40 percent of the entire network…

 

Each of the 1318 had ties to two or more other companies, and on average they were connected to 20. What’s more, although they represented 20 per cent of global operating revenues, the 1318 appeared to collectively own through their shares the majority of the world’s large blue chip and manufacturing firms – the “real” economy – representing a further 60 per cent of global revenues.

 

When the team further untangled the web of ownership, it found much of it tracked back to a “super-entity” of 147 even more tightly knit companies – all of their ownership was held by other members of the super-entity – that controlled 40 per cent of the total wealth in the network. “In effect, less than 1 per cent of the companies were able to control 40 per cent of the entire network,” says Glattfelder. Most were financial institutions. The top 20 included Barclays Bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and The Goldman Sachs Group.

Of course at the very top are the ultra-wealthy individuals that own and control the gigantic corporations that make up the “super-entity”.

 

This is why our major corporations all seem to have the same values.  At the very top their ownerships are all interlinked, and so trying to fundamentally change the culture of these massive institutions is nearly impossible.

 

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