charlesfrith.com
Stephen Lendman
Bankers rule the world. A new Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
study says so. Written by Stefania Vitali, James Glattfelder and
Stefano Battiston, it's titled "The network of global corporate
control," saying:
"We
find that transnational corporations from a giant bow-tie structure and
that a large portion of control flows to a small tightly-knit core of
financial institutions. This core can be seen as an economic
'super-entity' that raises new important issues both for researches and
policy makers."
The
study says 147 powerful companies control an inordinate amount of
economic activity - about 40%. Among the top 50, 45 are financial firms.
They include Barclays PLC (called most influential), JPMorgan Chase,
UBS, and other familiar and less known names.
Twenty-four
companies are US-based, followed by eight in Britain, five in France,
four in Japan, and Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands with two
each. Canada has one.
Moreover, "top ranked" companies "hold a control ten times bigger than what could be expected based on their wealth."
As a result, they have enormous influence over political, financial, and economic activity.
In his book titled, "When Corporations Rule the World,"
David Korten said they're able to transfer enormous amounts of power,
wealth and resources from public to private hands with government
complicity. Money power and concentrated wealth in few hands especially
harm humanity.
"These
forces have transformed" financial institutions and other corporate
predators "into instruments of a market tyranny that is extending its
reach across the planet like a cancer, colonizing ever more of the
planet's living spaces, destroying livelihoods, displacing people,
rendering democratic institutions impotent, and feeding on life in an
insatiable quest for money" and profits as a be and end all.
Only bottom line priorities and market dominance matter, not human welfare, environmental sanity, peace, equity and justice.
Transnational
giants are the dominant institution of our time - especially financial
ones with money power control of everything.
They
decide who governs and how, who serves on courts, what laws are
enacted, and whether or not wars are waged. Corporate dominance,
especially financial power, and democratic values are incompatible.
They
operate ruthlessly as private tyrannies. They're predators. We're prey,
and every day we're eaten alive. They do it because they can, and in
America by mandate.
Publicly
owned US corporations, including financial ones, must serve
shareholders by maximizing equity value through higher profits. They do
it by exploiting nations, people and resources ruthlessly.
Social
responsibility doesn't matter. Neither does being worker-friendly, a
good citizen, or friend of the earth. Bottom line priorities alone
matter. Failure to pursue fiduciary responsibilities means possible
dismissal or shareholder lawsuits.
Yet
nothing in America's Constitution or statute laws endow corporations
with their rights. They usurped them by co-opting Washington, the
nation's courts, state capitals, and city halls.
As
a result, over half the world's largest economies are corporations.
Financial ones controlling the power of money are most dominant.
No comments:
Post a Comment