

 Network Analysis Reveals ‘Super Entity’ of Global Corporate Control - yuxt
http://planetsave.com/2011/08/28/who-runs-the-world-network-analysis-reveals-super-entity-of-global-corporate-control/

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jacques_chester
Stunning revelation: banks do business with everyone.

Next up: rain is wet.

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vannevar
The report goes well beyond who does business with whom; it traces the lines
of control among transnational corporations (TNCs). FTA:

 _“despite its small size, the core holds collectively a large fraction of the
total network control. In detail, nearly 4/10 of the control over the economic
value of TNCs in the world is held, via a complicated web of ownership
relations, by a group of 147 TNCs in the core, which has almost full control
over itself. The top holders within the core can thus be thought of as an
economic “super-entity” in the global network of corporations.”_

It would be interesting to see a followup on the individuals who sit on the
boards of the 147 TNCs. It's likely to be a pretty exclusive club, since
directors often sit on the boards of more than one corporation, further
consolidating the decision-making authority and creating a potentially
catastrophic single point of failure in the world's financial systems. We
should consider restricting directors from serving on more than one board, to
decentralize authority and create a more robust and diverse system of
corporate governance.

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vannevar
Not all of the companies are banks, but even if they were, it is nonetheless a
shocking degree of centralized control. It isn't just that these companies
have large stakes in other companies, but that _they all have large stakes in
each other_. Consequently, there is a lack of effective oversight by
independent shareholders, not to mention the obvious opportunity and
incentives for anti-competitive collusion. And the study wasn't conducted by
wild-eyed conspiracy theorists, but by a group of Swiss economists. For a more
scientific take on the study, see
[http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/333389/title/Fina...](http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/333389/title/Financial_world_dominated_by_a_few_deep_pockets)
.

