21 October 2011

Supernetworked Firms ~ Global Corp Control...

New Scientist trumpets Revealed -- the capitalist network that runs the world, spotlighting The network of global corporate control by Vitali, Glattfelder, and Battiston...
"An analysis of the relationships between 43,000 transnational corporations has identified a relatively small group of companies, mainly banks, with disproportionate power over the global economy. The study's assumptions have attracted some criticism, but complex systems analysts contacted by New Scientist say it is a unique effort to untangle control in the global economy. Pushing the analysis further, they say, could help to identify ways of making global capitalism more stable. [...] 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."
Which, to the extent they manage mutual funds and the money of masses, is obvious. But nevertheless interesting!

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