BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street own the US

[Firestarter]

When investigating the 1 October Las Vegas “mass shooting” I found out about Vanguard and Fidelity (FMR). I postponed starting a thread on this, because there were some other things I wanted to do first.

First I looked at the major shareholders in Live Nation Entertainment Inc, which includes Vanguard (several times) and Fidelity: http://investors.morningstar.com/own...jor.html?t=LYV
(archived here: http://archive.is/gfOhJ)

Then I looked at the major shareholders in MGM Resorts, which includes Vanguard (multiple times) and BlackRock: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/MGM/holders?p=MGM
(archived here: http://archive.is/Du5Bl)

Then I looked at the major shareholders in Las Vegas Sands, which includes Vanguard (multiple times), BlackRock and Fidelity (FMR, LLC): https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/LVS/holders?p=LVS
(archived here: http://archive.is/fEl81)


Basically there are four investment funds – the Big Four - that control the US economy:
BlackRock,
Vanguard Group,
State Street,
Fidelity.

The 8 largest US financial companies - JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, U.S. Bancorp, Bank of New York Mellon and Morgan Stanley - are 100% controlled by ten shareholders. The “big four” are major shareholders in all of these 8 financial institutions.
As a result, the privately owned Federal Reserve is controlled by the Big Four…

Some of the major companies controlled by the Big Four include:
Alcoa, Altria Group, American International Group, AT&T,

Boeing, Caterpillar, Coca-Cola, DuPont,

Exxon Mobil, General Electric, General Motors, Hewlett-Packard,

Home Depot, Honeywell International, Intel, International Business Machines,

Johnson & Johnson, JP Morgan Chase, McDonald's, Merck,

Microsoft, 3M, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble,

United Technologies, Verizon Communications, Wal-Mart Stores,

Time Warner, Walt Disney, Viacom, Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation,

CBS, NBC Universal: http://www.pravdareport.com/business...e_the_world-0/
(archived here: http://archive.is/CTDsD)


The following story talks about the Big Three passive investment funds: BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street (thus without Fidelity).
The Big Three, taken together are the largest shareholder in 40% of all publicly listed firms in the USA.
In the S&P 500 – the benchmark index of America’s largest corporations – the “big three” are the largest shareholder in 438 of the 500 firms (or roughly 88%), including Apple, Microsoft, ExxonMobil, General Electric and Coca-Cola.

In 2015, CEO of Vanguard William McNabb said:

In the past, some have mistakenly assumed that our predominantly passive management style suggests a passive attitude with respect to corporate governance. Nothing could be further from the truth.

http://theconversation.com/these-thr...-america-77072
(archived here: http://archive.is/rZENG)

The last story was based on the following report, which concludes that the Big Three have risen considerably over the last decade and their control over the US economy is comparable to that of John D. Rockefeller and JP Morgan some hundred years ago.
BlackRock was founded in 1988 as part of the Blackstone Group of Baron Jacob Rothschild. According to the state media BlackRock is independent from Blackstone since 1995.

BlackRock is the largest of the Big Three and the biggest asset manager in the world. At mid-2016, BlackRock had $4.5 trillion in assets under management.
Vanguard — with $3.6 trillion in assets under management in mid-2016 — is currently the fastest growing asset manager of the Big Three. In 2015, the group had inflows of $236 billion, the largest annual flow of money to an asset managing company of all-time.
State Street is smaller than BlackRock and Vanguard, but still one of the largest global asset managers. In mid-2016, it had $2.3 trillion in assets under management.

The Big Three vote similar. They side with management in more than 90% of votes.
In at least one prominent case BlackRock convinced the central corporate governance team to change its policy: https://www.cambridge.org/core/servi...ncial_risk.pdf

See the following figure that shows that the Big Three dominate the US economy.

[Krugminator2]

Okay?

I do see the problem with passive investing and how it can create a lack of corporate accountability. In fact, I agree with that statement.

But for some reason I suspect you have a problem with Warren Buffett and Carl Icahn and activist hedge funds in general and would not want them getting more power. I think your problem might be with capitalism in general.

[Firestarter]

But for some reason I suspect you have a problem with Warren Buffett and Carl Icahn and activist hedge funds in general and would not want them getting more power. I think your problem might be with capitalism in general.

I hope we can agree that when our economy is effectively a monopoly, we are effectively enslaved by a totalitarian state. I really don't care which "ism" - capitalism, liberalism, socialism, communism or... Zionism - is used as an excuse for creating a one world monopoly.

At the end of 2005, Vanguard owned 5% or more of only 3 S&P 500 companies.
By the end of June 2016, that number had rocketed to 468 companies, or about 94% …

Vanguard has 15 people overseeing about 13,000 companies around the world.
BlackRock has about 24 people who work on governance issues at some 14,000 companies, and it plans to add 7 more in 2016/2017.

How BlackRock and the other big investment funds vote often determines the outcome.
Between 2014 and 2015, there were nearly 20 unsuccessful shareholder proposals on environmental and social issues that would have passed with the support of BlackRock, Vanguard or State Street.

Edkins said BlackRock has influence in about 1,200 of the US companies owned by its passive funds. She said meetings behind closed doors are more influential than votes against management.
In 2015, BlackRock voted for the $18 billion merger between professional service providers Towers Watson and Willis Group.
In June 2016, BlackRock, voted against the executive pay plan at Mylan, which has since been embroiled in controversy over its pricing of the EpiPen drug: https://www.fnlondon.com/articles/pa...okers-20161025
(archived here: http://archive.is/prsXN)


From 1995 to 2000, Richard Cheney was director of Halliburton and may have received deferred compensation and other benefits from Halliburton for a period of five years.
In 2008, when Cheney was Vice President, the Vanguard Group, with 7.6 million shares worth about $176 million, was the 10th largest Halliburton shareholder. Halliburton was awarded a huge almost open-ended non-competitive-bid contract for work in Iraq, worth over $2 billion.
Vanguard was/is also a huge owner in ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips.

Vice President Cheney's disclosure statement showed that he had $18 to $87 million invested through Vanguard: http://www.populist.com/03.19.burns.html


In November 2008, Willacy County District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra indicted Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales for neglecting federal prisoners and responsibility for abuses in the privately run prisons in Willacy County in South Texas.
Guerra estimated Cheney's investment in the Vanguard Group at $85 million (not blind!).
The 3 top prison companies Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), GEO Group and Cornell, have the Vanguard Group as major shareholder in common.

Guerra found out that in 2006 Cheney shut down the investigation into the killing of prison inmate Gregorio De La Rosa Jr. Guerra says Cheney stopped the investigation so that the value of his shares Vanguard would rise.
Guerra was himself indicted by Marvin Mosbacker on behalf of the Bush administration for investigating a little too hard…
The investigation was taken over by the FBI (where have I heard this before?). The assistant US attorney that was handling the investigation - Marvin Mosbacker: https://www.democracynow.org/2008/11...zales_indicted
(archived here: http://archive.is/mKGNH)

For some reason the Judge dismissed the case against Cheney and Gonzales, after a mere 2 weeks.
Maybe Guerra should have invested in Vanguard; a two-page notice tacked to a bulletin board advertised the 6 January 2009 foreclosure sale of his home: http://www.raymondville-chronicle.co.../news/019.html
(archived here: http://archive.is/TnVdy)


Vanguard is apparently one of the companies that profits from the enormous prison population in the USA: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...ion-in-the-USA

[Krugminator2]

I hope we can agree that when our economy is effectively a monopoly, we are effectively enslaved by a totalitarian state.

No. The economy is not a monopoly.

Vanguard is apparently one of the companies that profits from the enormous prison population in the USA:

Vanguard is a mutual fund. Mutual funds hold stocks. Vanguard became large because they offered a product at a lower price than its competitors. Vanguard funds basically own every stock in the investable universe.

Vanguard doesn't care at all about private prisons or anything you are saying. Not even a little bit. They actually don't profit from their investments or than the very small increase in their total assets. The people invested in the funds get 99.75% of the profits

[Zippyjuan]

No. The economy is not a monopoly.



Vanguard is a mutual fund. Mutual funds hold stocks. Vanguard became large because they offered a product at a lower price than its competitors. Vanguard funds basically own every stock in the investable universe.

Vanguard doesn't care at all about private prisons or anything you are saying. Not even a little bit. They actually don't profit from their investments or than the very small increase in their total assets. The people invested in the funds get 99.75% of the profits

Vanguard is particularly known for their very low cost (costs reduce your returns- lower costs means higher returns) index funds. I have a couple. An index fund buys and holds the same stocks as the index in the same percentages. This means they aren't buying and selling (except for people adding to or reducing their accounts). Look up any stock and they are likely among the biggest share holders. They don't own all those shares themselves- the shares are owned by people with money in accounts with them.

[Krugminator2]

Vanguard is particularly known for their very low cost (costs reduce your returns- lower costs means higher returns) index funds. I have a couple. An index fund buys and holds the same stocks as the index in the same percentages. This means they aren't buying and selling (except for people adding to or reducing their accounts). Look up any stock and they are likely among the biggest share holders. They don't own all those shares themselves- the shares are owned by people with money in accounts with them.

Right. Literally every single part of what you just said is in the comment you responded to.

[devil21]

+rep Firestarter, if for no other reason than researching on your own. You can go deeper down the rabbit hole by looking into how those major funds relate to the true legal owner of practically all stocks, bonds, etc. Look into the DTC and Cede & Co.

[Firestarter]

I try to keep the focus on BlackRock and Vanguard, maybe in some time I’ll widen the scope, but I don’t know if that will lead to the Depository Trust Company (DTC) and Cede & Co.


Regularly after I start a thread, stories with similar keywords are put on the internet to bury mine. After I started this thread on 2 December, on 4 December Bloomberg published a story on BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/featu...than-you-think
(archived here: http://archive.is/4UgMe)


It is based on, for example, the following 83 page paper that was posted “recently” in April 2014: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Papers....act_id=2427345

[devil21]

I'm sure you know that many forums, especially the ones with the "smart people", are closely monitored and all of the important ones are owned by tptb now.

Why the DTC and subsidiary Cede & Co is important is because

1)they are the legal owner of all of the stocks you referenced (investors only have a 'use title', not legal ownership title)
2)the basis of all value in stocks and all financial instruments are under custodial control of the DTC ("The Tower Of Power"). That basis? The birth registration documents of nearly every man, woman and child on the American land mass. The registrations turn people into legal slaves, hence why Fidelity's logo was the pyramid and capstone. Ancient bondage.

Good luck with your research and do keep posting. The rabbit hole is deeeeeep.

(Same or similar operations are at work in every Rothschild central bank controlled country.)

[Firestarter]

I'm sure you know that many forums, especially the ones with the "smart people", are closely monitored and all of the important ones are owned by tptb now.

I'm afraid that most people rather watch some stupid Youtube video or mind numbing show or movie on the telescreen, than read something of more than 100 words...


BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street together control 75% of all the money in passive funds, including 82% of ETF assets (ETF: Exchange-Traded Fund).
In 2016, BlackRock and Vanguard voted with management on compensation-related shareholder proposals 98% of the time, and State Street 84%.
Their focus is on behind-the-scenes deals. According to Vanguard’s Glenn Booraem:

By the time the issue gets to the ballot, shareholders are left with a binary choice.
By having ongoing discussions, we can get into the shades of gray that are often directionally consistent with the shareholder proposal, but better reflect our views.

While BlackRock and Vanguard have publicly announced their commitment to environmental issues, in reality they have always voted against climate-related shareholder proposals - with the exception of one vote against ExxonMobil management. This only happened after ExxonMobil over several years had declined the BlackRock money manager’s repeated requests to discuss the policy: https://www.barrons.com/articles/pas...sts-1499491673

Four of the 10 ten biggest companies in the world are from the USA – 1 Wal-Mart Stores, 8 Berkshire Hathaway, 9 Apple, and 10 Exxon Mobil: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/...anies-revenue/

Major shareholders in Wal-Mart include – Vanguard, BlackRock and State Street: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/WMT/holders?p=WMT
(archived here: http://archive.is/SYyl9)

Major shareholders in Berkshire Hathaway include - Fidelity (FMR)
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/brk-a/holders?ltr=1
(archived here: http://archive.is/7SxAd)

Major shareholders in Apple include - Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street and Fidelity (FMR): https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/aapl/holders?ltr=1
(archived here: http://archive.is/qXaQ3)

Major shareholders in Exxon Mobil include – Vanguard, BlackRock and State Street: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/xom/holders?ltr=1
(archived here: http://archive.is/watUw)


Vanguard is by far the biggest growing investment fund over the last 3 years. Vanguard funds gathered an additional $823 billion from 2014 to 2016. All of the 4,000 other investment firms combined took in just a net $97 billion during that same period. In other words, Vanguard scooped up about 8.5 times as much money as all of its competitors…
Vanguard’s assets under management have skyrocketed from $1 trillion, 7 years ago, to $4.2 trillion. About $3 trillion of this is invested in “passive” index-based strategies, with the rest in “active” funds. These days, Vanguard’s traders funnel up to $2 billion a day into a variety of stocks from the biggest to thousands of smaller companies – that’s 20 times Vanguard’s daily investments in 2009.
In February, March of this year, 90% of the money invested in a United States mutual fund or E.T.F. was absorbed by Vanguard: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/14/b...ds-growth.html
(archived here: http://archive.is/f5fFA)

[Firestarter]

It’s interesting to look at last year’s presidential candidates in this context.

Hillary Clinton in 2015 disclosed that she had invested between $5 million and $25 million in Vanguard's S&P 500 index fund, which invests in the 500 largest publicly-traded companies in the US.
Clinton also had $5 million to $25 million in "JP Morgan Custody Account (Cash)". None of her other investments were worth more than $1 million: https://www.vox.com/2015/5/18/861804...funds-vanguard

In what looks like a conflict of interests, in 2012 Bill Clinton got rewarded with $400,000 for 2 speeches to Vanguard institutional client groups: http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/i...on-200000.html


In March 2016, Reuters reported that 18 of the 21 the hedge funds in which Donald Trump had invested had been losing money since 2015, an average loss of 8.5% in 2015. In the first 2 months of 2016 Trump's funds lost another 2.9%.


Compared to stock market and hedge fund industry benchmarks that broke even or came close to it in 2015, Donald’s investments didn’t fare well.
Most investments by Trump were made in BlackRock's Obsidian fund, followed by Paulson & Co (of John Paulson) and Baron Capital (of Ron Baron).
Trump's funds that fell in 2015 have done better in the years before 2015. BlackRock's Obsidian fund for example, has averaged annual returns of 3.39% percent from 2011-2015: https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-us...-idUKKCN0WQ0WI

In contrast to 2015, Donald Trump reported impressive profits on his investments in stock and funds in July 2015. I don’t know when he invested first (so don’t know over what period he made these profits).
A profit of $27 million on $67.3 million invested in stocks (40% gains).
A profit of $22.4 million on $68.2 million invested in funds (23% gains): https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-st...ly-15-2015.pdf

Ivanka Trump also invested BlackRock’s Obsidian hedge fund.
Donald Trump has claimed that he doesn’t need to divest his assets in BlackRock, as the conflict-of-interest rules don’t apply to him: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...b062043ad4b049


John Paulson (who has worked at Goldman Sachs) was also part of Trump’s financial team for the elections.
Paulson should be infamous for making over $5 billion by betting against his own clients, while playing a part in crashing the American mortgage markets in 2008. After making billions of dollars Goldman Sachs paid $550 million to settle fraud charges with the SEC and had the Frenchman Fabrice Tourre convicted for this multibillion fraud.
Eventually the crisis spread worldwide and bankrupted the Royal Bank of Scotland. The taxpayers paid for the losses: http://www.gregpalast.com/the-frog-w...inance-crisis/


The CEO of BlackRock, long-time Democrat Larry Fink, was expected to become US Treasurer if Hillary would have become president. BlackRock first went public in 1999.
Throughout the crisis, Fink was negotiating with then-President of the New York Federal Reserve, Timothy Geithner, Treasury Secretary and the former CEO of Goldman Sachs Hank Paulson, and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

When the taxpayer had to pay and a lot of Americans lost their homes, it was BlackRock that made the profit. In 2009, in the aftermath of the crisis, BlackRock purchased Barclays Global Investors for the relatively small cost of $13.5 billion, and became the biggest investment fund in one quick move.
In 2013, BlackRock appointed to its board of directors Cheryl Mills. Mills was chief of staff to Hillary Clinton at the State Department, and among the inner circle of advisers for Hillary Clinton. Mills had been one of President Bill Clinton’s attorneys during his impeachment.
Mills explained that she still advises and speaks with Hillary regularly: http://www.occupy.com/article/exposi....VQXI6YSh.dpbs


President Trump selected former Goldman Sachs banker Steve Mnuchin for treasury secretary.
The “Strategic and Policy Forum” of Donald Trump is led by billionaire Blackstone founder Stephen Schwarzman. This forum also includes BlackRock CEO Larry Fink: http://money.cnn.com/2016/12/02/inve...ex.html?iid=EL

In 2009, Mnuchin was involved in a group of investors that included George Soros and John Paulson to buy the IndyMac Bank that had been shut down in 2008. After they renamed it OneWest Bank it was sold a few years later with a profit of billions: https://www.thenation.com/article/th...ance-chairman/

While Hillary Clinton was made an honorary member of Skull & Bones in 2016, Steven Mnuchin was initiated in 1985, and Stephen A. Schwarzman became a Bonesman in 1969.


Here’s a nice picture of the panel at a Bloomberg Global Business Forum event in New York, 20 September 2017. From left to right: Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, Dutch PM Mark Rutte, CEO of BlackRock Laurence Fink, and CEO of Blackstone Stephen Schwarzman.

The registrations turn people into legal slaves, hence why Fidelity's logo was the pyramid and capstone. Ancient bondage.

[devil21]

^^^^^
And that's IMF head LaGarde on the far left "moderating" the forum.

These elite types essentially steal the labor of the slave class, through a "magical alchemy" process of turning lead into gold. The lowest slave (lead) becomes profitable (gold) by using slave driving techniques taught in the Talmud and taught by the mystery schools they belong to, such as freemasonry. None of them do anything productive themselves. They just steal other's labor, the same as pharoahs in ancient Egypt and other ancient slave civilizations did. US Treasury auctions are nothing more than modern slave auctions, where the Treasury bundles up the assigned value of the new slaves and sells their future labor to the highest bidder.

[Firestarter]

A lot of “conspiracy theorists” claim that bankers rule the world, but it now becomes clear that a mere 4 investment funds – of which BlackRock and Vanguard are by far the biggest - control the major banks in the US.

And that's IMF head LaGarde on the far left "moderating" the forum.

I once thought that the IMF and World Bank are some of the main tools to keep us enslaved: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...d-Bank-and-IMF
By now I'm thinking that the 2 ordinary looking men on the right of the previous photo have a lot more power (and money) than Managing Director of the IMF Christine Lagarde...


During the 2007-2009 crisis, the Federal Reserve supported banks with more than $16 trillion in credit (the amount of credit received is in brackets in billions of dollars): Citigroup (2,500); Morgan Stanley (2,004); Merrill Lynch (1,949); Bank of America (1,344); Barclays PLC (868); Bear Sterns (853); Goldman Sachs (814); Royal Bank of Scotland (541); JP Morgan (391); Deutsche Bank (354); Credit Swiss (262); UBS (287); Leman Brothers (183); Bank of Scotland (181); and BNP Paribas (175).
Strangely foreign banks (highlighted in the previous list) received nearly $2.5 trillion.

The first of the following tables shows how the Big Four control the biggest 6 US banks.
The second table shows that the percentages owned are even higher, for example Vanguard owns at least an additional 3.59% on top of the 4.91% listed in the first table. Relatively Vanguard owns even more of these big banks than of other corporations.


The biggest 5 individual shareholders in Goldman Sachs are senior managers at Goldman Sachs – Lloyd Blankfein, John Weinberg, Mark Schwartz, Gregory Palm and David Viniar.
Together these 5 men hold more than 5.5 million shares in Goldman Sachs (1.3%): https://www.strategic-culture.org/ne...e-banks-i.html


The influence of the big investments funds is even bigger than can be expected based on the percentages of the companies they own.
These investments funds own so-called “voting shares”, while other shareholders often own “privileged shares”. The “privileged shares” give their holders privileges like receiving a fixed dividend, but deprive them of the right to vote at shareholder meetings. If my pension would be invested by a fund, I would be interested in privileges like receiving a fixed dividend, but wouldn’t want the fund that “invests” it for me to vote on the company policy.

Financial holding companies like the Vanguard Group, BlackRock, State Street Corporation and Fidelity (FMR) own mainly voting shares, which means that they have even more voting power than their share suggests. These funds have the real control over the US banking system.
In my opinion a “passive” fund that owns “voting shares” is a contradictio in terminis.

Also some banks are major shareholders in other banks.
JP Morgan Chase for example holds more than 1.5% of the shares in 4 of the big US banks - Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley. The Big Four also own many shares in JP Morgan Chase.
The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation also holds shares in the big US banks. New York Mellon is also controlled by the Big Three – Vanguard 5.15%; State Street Corporation 4.72%; and BlackRock 2.62% (in 2015).

In 2011, a Swiss report showed that 1,128 companies and banks were at the core of global finance at the beginning of the financial crisis (2007). An even denser core of 147 companies controlled 40% of all corporate assets in the world.
Since 2009, the assets have become even denser (over fewer companies)…

Also interesting is that the Big Four investment funds control trillions of dollars worth of assets with a rather modest number of employees. With total assets of around $15 trillion, the Big Four together have less than 100,000 employees.
Citigroup alone has nearly 250,000 employees, while Wells Fargo has 280,000: https://www.strategic-culture.org/ne...-banks-ii.html


In 2015, Fidelity and State Street owned stocks in the Federal Reserve: https://philosophyofmetrics.com/wp-c...Banks-2015.pdf

The companies that own shares in the Federal Reserve don’t have voting rights, but a 6% dividend per year (which is much higher than what I get on my savings).
According to the state media, the Federal Reserve is privately owned, but the Congress decides. How Congress could exercise control, when the Federal Reserve isn’t even audited, is beyond my level of understanding...
According to the state media, the Federal Reserve doesn’t make profit, which contradicts that the profits go back to the US Treasury: http://www.businessinsider.com/who-a...true&r=US&IR=T

[devil21]

@Firestarter, check your inbox and also check out this post, particularly the part about stock market operation.
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...=1#post6564386

A lot of “conspiracy theorists” claim that bankers rule the world, but it now becomes clear that a mere 4 investment funds – of which BlackRock and Vanguard are by far the biggest - control the major banks in the US.

"Bankers" is a short-hand term for CFR and lateral organizations and their bosses. See Myron Fagan's CFR/Illuminati video on youtube to understand who the "bankers" are. When you're talking about these mega investment funds, you're still only scratching the surface.

[Zippyjuan]

In 2015, Fidelity and State Street owned stocks in the Federal Reserve: https://philosophyofmetrics.com/wp-c...Banks-2015.pdf

The companies that own shares in the Federal Reserve don’t have voting rights, but a 6% dividend per year (which is much higher than what I get on my savings).
According to the state media, the Federal Reserve is privately owned, but the Congress decides. How Congress could exercise control, when the Federal Reserve isn’t even audited, is beyond my level of understanding...
According to the state media, the Federal Reserve doesn’t make profit, which contradicts that the profits go back to the US Treasury: http://www.businessinsider.com/who-a...true&r=US&IR=T

Member banks are required to purchase stock in the Federal Reserve to become members and have access to their services. They are required to put up six percent of their assets in exchange for those shares and yes, they do pay a six percent dividend by law. But the shares are more a membership fee than real stocks like in companies. They can't be bought and sold and contain no voting rights. It is not the same as buying stocks as in say Citibank or Vanguard. It isn't any sort of "ownership" in the Federal Reserve.

In 2015, Fidelity and State Street owned stocks in the Federal Reserve: https://philosophyofmetrics.com/wp-c...Banks-2015.pdf

The bank listed is Fidelity State Bank and Trust Company. That is not the same as the Fidelity Investment company.

Fidelity State Bank and Holding Company: http://www.fidelitytopeka.com/home/about/history

Fidelity Investments: https://www.fidelity.com/



True the Federal Reserve turns their profits over to the US Treasury (minus their expenses). They are non-profit in that they do not retain their profits. And they are audited. https://www.federalreserve.gov/about...statements.htm

During the 2007-2009 crisis, the Federal Reserve supported banks with more than $16 trillion in credit (the amount of credit received is in brackets in billions of dollars): Citigroup (2,500); Morgan Stanley (2,004); Merrill Lynch (1,949); Bank of America (1,344); Barclays PLC (868); Bear Sterns (853); Goldman Sachs (814); Royal Bank of Scotland (541); JP Morgan (391); Deutsche Bank (354); Credit Swiss (262); UBS (287); Leman Brothers (183); Bank of Scotland (181); and BNP Paribas (175).
Strangely foreign banks (highlighted in the previous list) received nearly $2.5 trillion.

The Fed did provide loans to US branches of some foreign held banks. True. But the figures for how much money the Fed loaned out is highly exaggerated. The loans were overnight- one day. If a bank kept it another day, it was counted as a new loan even if the amount was unchanged. If a bank took out $10 million and kept it for a month, it counted as $300 million in loans- not the $10 million they actually took out. Total actual loans was much closer to $1 trillion- not $16 trillion.

[Firestarter]

I see a lot of “True, but” constructions in the last post...

The bank listed is Fidelity State Bank and Trust Company. That is not the same as the Fidelity Investment company.

Fidelity State Bank and Holding Company: http://www.fidelitytopeka.com/home/about/history

Fidelity Investments: https://www.fidelity.com/

Thank you, that’s a good correction.
It would have been even better, if you would´ve noted that the Fidelity Trust Company since 1988 is part of the giant US bank Wells Fargo (that´s effectively controlled by the Big Four): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidelity_Trust_Company
While it´s impressive that you know that these 2 Fidelity´s are different organisations; Wells Fargo isn´t even in “your” link…

Wells Fargo is partner in crime with the money laundering HSBC bank in the Wells Fargo HSBC Trade Bank.
The same member of CFR, Elaine Chao, who was nominated by President Donald for Secretary of Transportation, used to sit on Wells Fargo´s board of directors.
The father of Elaine, James S.C. Chao, was a classmate of Jiang Zemin, China’s president in the 1990s, and have remained good friends ever since.
James Chao founded the Foremost Maritime Corporation that in 2014 was caught trafficking ninety pounds of cocaine: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...=1#post6467747

True the Federal Reserve turns their profits over to the US Treasury (minus their expenses). They are non-profit in that they do not retain their profits. And they are audited. https://www.federalreserve.gov/about...statements.htm

That´s a ridiculous claim to make, especially on Ronpaulforums.
Maybe you´ve heard of former Congressman Ron Paul, who over the years has repeatedly called for auditing the Fed.

An organisation can either be audited or not.
The “audit” of the Federal Reserve is not a (real) “audit” at all, but a mere PR-stunt. Such an “audiot” is comparable to saying that the customs can check all things that are imported with the exception of plastic bags containing some white powder…

It is prohibited by law to audit the following areas of the Federal Reserve:
1. Transactions with a foreign central bank, government of a foreign country, or private international financing organisation;
2. Decisions and actions on monetary policy matters, like discount window operations, reserves of member banks, securities credit, interest on deposits, and open market operations;
3. Transactions made under the direction of the Federal Open Market Committee.

For more information on the “audiot” of the Federal Reserve, see the following story by some Senator named Rand Paul: http://dailycaller.com/2017/08/21/it...audit-the-fed/

[devil21]

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-1...ney-runs-world

[devil21]

Something worth noting regarding these few companies is that they are also the biggest ETF issuers, therefore they "buy" the stocks that make up the ETF contents. By having these mega funds buy up the stocks that make up their ETFs, it keeps the stocks out of the accounts of retail investors. Retail investors instead are investing in a derivative of the stocks, not the stocks themselves.

[Firestarter]

It really is amazing how these investments funds control the complete economy with other people’s money. These investment funds are supported by the very low interest rates on bank accounts...

This post is about the complete dominance over our deaf, dumb and blind media by the Big Four.
The biggest media conglomerates in the US are the following 6: Comcast, The Walt Disney Company, News Corp., Time Warner, Viacom, and CBS Corporation.

Major shareholders in Comcast Corporation include Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street, Fidelity (FMR), and Capital: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/CMCSA/holders/
(archived here: http://archive.is/AZdbt)

Major shareholders in Walt Disney Company include Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street, Fidelity (FMR): https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/DIS/holders/
(archived here: http://archive.is/V9atH)

Major shareholders in News Corporation (this is reportedly completely controlled by Rupert Murdoch) include Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/NWS/holders?p=NWS
(archived here: http://archive.is/nROUr)

Major shareholders in Time Warner Inc. include Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street, Fidelity (FMR):
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/twx/holders?ltr=1
(archived here: http://archive.is/VQrpl

Major shareholders in Viacom Inc. include Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street, and Capital (class B shares): https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/VIAB/holders?p=VIAB
(archived here: http://archive.is/DvJ4Q)

Major shareholders in Viacom Inc. include Fidelity (FMR), and Thomas E. Dooley, Gabelli, Gamco (class A shares): https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/VIA/holders?p=VIA
(archived here: http://archive.is/twkPT)

Major shareholders in CBS Corporation include Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street, and Capital: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/CBS/holders?p=CBS
(archived here: http://archive.is/yJDTm)


Maybe the giant internet “search” engines that hide the most interesting information are even more important than the corporations that invent our “news” – Google and Yahoo.
The Google company is for some reason called Alphabet and Verizon is the company that owns Yahoo (Verizon is also the parent company of AOL)

Major shareholders in Alphabet Inc. (Google) include Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street, Fidelity (FMR), and Capital: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/GOOG/holders?p=GOOG
(archived here: http://archive.is/PIW8O)

Major shareholders in Verizon Communication Inc. include Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street, Fidelity (FMR), and Capital: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/vz/holders/
(archived here: http://archive.is/wlANC)


The Capital Group that is a major shareholder in some of the US media corporations has $1.5 trillion in assets. Capital obviously has a different strategy than the Big Four (I can’t even say that the Big Three investment funds have a real focus).
It owns more than 10% of the giant corporations Lockheed Martin and Bayer AG.
Capital is also a major shareholder in the giant Netherlands corporations Akzo Nobel, KPN Telecom, ASML, and Royal Dutch Shell: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_Group_Companies

A lot of the corporations in which Capital is a major shareholder are affiliated with the Dutch Royal family...

Apparently Rupert Murdoch has been “buying” into Walt Disney Co. The story is that this month Disney has taken over 21st Century Fox.
To me it looks more like Rupert Murdoch has swapped some of his interest in the New Corp, for influence in Walt Disney. The Murdoch family trust will become the second largest shareholder in Walt Disney stock: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...214-story.html

[Firestarter]

In November 2017, Vanguard was in the news over supporting genocide.
I first thought that this was worthwhile exploring, but quickly found out that it’s (once again) some major hypocrisy of the white man accusing the African of crimes against humanity, brought to us by Investors Against Genocide.

It’s based on Vanguard investing in China’s largest oil company, PetroChina, which does business in Sudan.
In 2009, the (corrupt) International Criminal Court indicted Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir for directing an army campaign that killed thousands of non-Arab citizens in the Darfur region: https://www.investorsagainstgenocide...rget-genocide/

Blackrock doesn’t only invest in PetroChina, but also in Sinopec.
This is inconsistent with US sanctions against Sudan and Syria: https://www.investorsagainstgenocide...gns/blackrock/


One of many examples of genocide is the starvation of Yemen. In 2016 alone more than 50,000 children died of preventable causes. Since then the humanitarian catastrophe over there has gotten even worse: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...of-Yemen/page8

One of the major arms companies that profited from the sales to Saudi Arabia (that has been singled out to take the blame for the starvation of Yemen) is Lockheed Martin.
Major shareholders in Lockheed Martin Corporation include – Vanguard, Blackrock, State Street, and Capital: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/LMT/holders?p=LMT (archived here: http://archive.is/E44du)


Following is a breakdown of the major shareholders in some of the big US genocidal companies that produce not only weapons for the wars in the world, but also lobby Congress to keep the wars going...

Major shareholders in Halliburton Company include – Vanguard, Blackrock, State Street, Fidelity (FMR), and Capital: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/hal/holders?ltr=1 (archived here: http://archive.is/nM1TG)

Major shareholders in Boeing Company include – Vanguard, Blackrock, State Street, and Capital, Evercore Trust Company, T. Rowe Price Associates: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/BA/holders?p=BA (archived here: http://archive.is/Os1jJ)

Major shareholders in General Dynamics Corporation include – Vanguard, Blackrock, State Street, Fidelity (FMR), and Capital, Longview Asset Management, Evercore Trust Company: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/GD/holders?p=GD (archived here: http://archive.is/owXP1)

Major shareholders in Raytheon Company include – Vanguard, Blackrock, State Street, Fidelity (FMR): https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/RTN/holders/ (archived here: http://archive.is/sHBSN)

Major shareholders in Northrop Grumman include – Vanguard, Blackrock, State Street, Fidelity (FMR), and Capital: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/noc/holders?ltr=1 (archived here: http://archive.is/VsVke)

Major shareholders in Huntington Ingalls Industries (a spinoff of Northrop Grumman) include – Vanguard, Blackrock, State Street, Fidelity (FMR): https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/HII/holders?p=HII (archived here: http://archive.is/z0eXE)

Major shareholders in CenturyLink Inc. (this acquired L-3 in November 2017) include Vanguard, Blackrock, State Street, and Capital: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/CTL/holders/ (archived here: http://archive.is/pgTMm)

Major shareholders in Level 3 Technologies Inc. (was acquired by CenturyLink in November 2017) include Vanguard, Blackrock, State Street, and Goldman Sachs, ClearBridge Investments: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/lll/holders?ltr=1 (archived here: http://archive.is/EaS0q)

Major shareholders in United Technologies Corporation include – Vanguard, Blackrock, State Street, Fidelity (FMR): https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/UTX/holders/

Major shareholders in Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) include – Vanguard, Blackrock, State Street, Fidelity (FMR): https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/SAIC/holders?p=SAIC (archived here: http://archive.is/iIcDQ)

Major shareholders in General Electric Company include – Vanguard, Blackrock, State Street, and Capital: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/GE/holders?p=GE (archived here: http://archive.is/KqQ4A)

Major shareholders in Oshkosh Corporation include – Vanguard, Blackrock, and Goldman Sachs, Aristotle Capital Management, AllianceBernstein: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/OSK/holders?p=OSK (archived here: http://archive.is/eePwI)

Major shareholders in Textron Inc. include – Vanguard, Blackrock, State Street, and Capital, T. Rowe Price Associates: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/TXT/holders?p=TXT (archived here: http://archive.is/hmOyN)


It’s easy to figure out what happens behind the scenes, but not easy to find evidence that is convincing enough for a brainwashed population...

In April 2014, there was some (by now forgotten) controversy over Boeing contributing $900,000 to the Clinton foundation in 2010 to “rebuild schools in Haiti”.
That contribution came just months after Clinton had travelled to Russia, where she made what she called a "shameless pitch" for a state-owned company to buy Boeing passenger jets. Boeing won the $3.7 billion Russian contract in June 2010.

A month after her Russia trip, Clinton also announced that Boeing had doubled its donation from $1 million to $2 million to help build the US pavilion at the world's fair in Shanghai.
The donation came after Clinton made personal pleas to ensure US participation at the fair; despite earlier State Department ethics guidance that had capped Boeing's participation at the event.

Boeing chief executive W. James McNearney claimed that Clinton’s "shameless pitch" had nothing to do with “these few donations”: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.bc8694571ae1
(archived here: http://archive.is/bQMqY)


After President Donald, in April 2017, had ordered to bomb the hell out of Syrian “terrorists” with Raytheon’s Tomahawk missiles... the following day Raytheon’s stocks opened 2.5% higher, adding more than $1 billion to the defence contractor’s market value, despite lower stock markets that day.
The shares of other missile and weapons manufacturers, also increased, including of Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and General Dynamics. Each rose as much as 1%, collectively gaining nearly $5 billion in market value as soon as trading began: http://fortune.com/2017/04/07/syria-...aytheon-stock/

[Firestarter]

One of the leading owners of the tax exempt Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) - that own many of offices, shopping centres, apartments, hotels, warehouses, and data and storage centres across the US - is Vanguard.
According to William Crow, Vanguard, BlackRock, and other index funds “own about 30 percent of REIT stocks, and Vanguard is by far the largest”.

Vanguard owns:
18% of Host Hotels & Resorts (including Ritz-Carlton, Marriott, and Westin hotels);
16% of Brandywine Realty Trust, which owns a majority of Center City’s highest buildings;
16% of Liberty Property Trust, which develops offices for Comcast and is a landlord to... Vanguard;
16% of the Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust (including Cherry Hill Mall and Willow Grove Park);
15% of Simon Property Group, the national mall owner (including King of Prussia Mall);
15% of Prologis, the warehouse giant.

Vanguard also owns more than 10% of pesticide maker FMC Corp., whose headquarters is the lead tenant in a 49-story tower owned by Brandywine.
For obvious reasons, REIT tax protections ends when the owner of 10% of a REIT landlord also owns 10% of a REIT tenant. Tax deducted renting to itself – money laundering and/or tax evasion. But that restriction is void for mutual funds with many owners.

Of course there is no real competition between these corporate giants. This causes (tax deducted) lower landlord costs, but higher tenant rents: http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/i...-20170823.html
(archived here: http://archive.is/5fgtU)


In the crash of 2008, orchestrated by the big banks, the value of real estate plummeted...
Blackstone Group spent more than $10 billion buying distressed residential real estate all over the US, pennies for dollars.

Bonesman, Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman claims to have said:

Oh my goodness, this could be huge. Nobody is going to be able to borrow, they’re going to need housing. So we went out and started to buy houses to rent to people.

Oh my goodness, that sounds almost philanthropic. It would have been better if the big banks had not orchestrated the crash: https://www.investopedia.com/news/am...-files-ipo-bx/


In 2013, Blackstone was the largest of the big house buyers. Wall Street keeps “lending” so the big investors can keep buying. In the fall of 2013, Invitation Homes, a subsidiary of the Blackstone Group, raised $479 million in a bond offering.
Invitation Homes purchased homes from banks, foreclosure auctions or individual sellers, and turned them into rentals. Invitation Homes averagely paid $150,000 to buy a house and another $21,000 for renovation.

This prevents “normal” people from owning their homes and inflates real estate prices.
Robert Shiller said:

I don’t quite understand why the housing market shot up so much in the last year when expectations didn’t go up, at least not among homebuyers.

https://www.seattletimes.com/busines...s-for-rentals/


Because of the orchestrated crisis, the big investors could buy the real estate cheap, knowing that in time riches will follow.

After Europe was ravaged by the financial and economic crisis, the giant investment bank Goldman Sachs (THE major orchestrator of the 2008 crisis) snapped up huge amounts of distressed debt in Ireland, including the loans of Tyrrelstown’s developer in 2014. Tyrrelstown wanted out of the rental game and sold its properties.
Wall Street has become the biggest new landlord in Europe. From 2012 to 2016, Goldman Sachs, Cerberus Capital Management, Lone Star Funds, Blackstone Group and others big US investment funds bought more than 223 billion Euros’ worth of troubled real estate loans around Europe, nearly 80% of the total sold.

Some tenants northwest of Dublin received a letter ordering them to leave their homes when their lease expired. In Ireland, homeowners seeking protection have demonstrated outside Parliament.
In 2016, protesters in Barcelona occupied empty apartments whose mortgages had been bought by Blackstone, and rallied around tenants in Madrid who were served eviction by a Goldman-run subsidiary.

The firms pay little or no tax, by simple strategies.
The Goldman subsidiary Beltany earned interest income of €44 million on debt portfolios in Ireland by the end of 2014. After lowering taxable profit to €1,000, the net tax charge was only €250.

To buy the debt, Cerberus’s Dutch Promontoria companies lent money to Cerberus’s Irish Promontoria firms at a high interest rate. The Irish Promontoria paid almost the same amount in interest that was earned on the real estate investments. Since the interest was deductible, Cerberus drastically cut its tax bill in Ireland.
In 2014, the Irish subsidiary Promontoria Eagle earned interest income of £111 million (around $140 million). After deducting interest charges and fees, taxable profit was only £7,788, resulting in a tax charge of just £1,947: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/10/b...mortgages.html
(archived here: http://archive.is/AN5yy)


In short “free market” economy at its finest...

[Firestarter]

My “friends” in the media have found out that some British politicians are involved with the same big investment funds that are majority shareholders in the military industrial complex.They argue that this could lead to a conflict of interest when Syria is bombed…


Since 2005, Philip May (husband of PM Theresa May) is an investment relationship manager at Capital Group, which owns more than 10% of Lockheed Martin.
Each JASSM bomb, used by the US army to bomb Syria, costs over a million dollars. Lockheed Martin made a nice profit and its shareholders, including Capital Group, made a fortune as the shares soared.

Philip May met Theresa at the notorious Oxford University. In 1979, Philip personally escorted Richard Nixon to a debate for the Oxford Union.

Capital Group also has investments in other corporations that will profit from the war in the Middle East. Capital owns 5% of Boeing and 10% of Royal Dutch Shell: https://theswamp.media/how-philip-ma...-capital-group


Capital is the second largest shareholder in Lockheed Martin.
Capital is also the largest shareholder in arms manufacturer BAE Systems, with over 360,000 shares, whose share price has also soared. Coincidentally Capital increased its share in BAE with 11% in the previous quarter.

The UK army fired 8 “Storm-Shadow” missiles, manufactured by BAE Systems, at an alleged chemical weapons facility, that cost £790,000 ($1.13 million) a piece – for a total of £6.32 million ($9 million).

Former Chancellor of the Exchequer and present editor-in-chief at the Evening Standard and MP George Osborne works for BlackRock; the fifth largest shareholder in BAE systems: http://travelwirenews.com/pms-husban...trikes-820375/


Bullingdon Boy George Osborne gets paid £650,000 a year for “working” just 48 days (4 days a month), or £13,000 per day, as an adviser for BlackRock (in addition to share rewards).
Osborne also made almost £800,000 for 15 speeches.

In March, Osborne accepted a Kissinger fellowship at the Rothschild affiliated McCain Institute: https://www.theguardian.com/politics...ackrock-salary


From 2006 to 2015, Rupert Harrison served as George Osborne’s Chief of Staff. Harrison was also schooled at Eton College and Oxford.
In August 2015, Harrison became a Portfolio Manager and Chief Macro Strategist at BlackRock…

Harrison was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in August 2015.
Harrison has published opinion pieces for Rothschild’s Financial Times: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Harrison


Employee of BlackRock, Lilian, was so frustrated over Osborne’s salary that she blew the whistle on him not even coming to the office for his £650,000 pay check.
She told Darren Adam:

I can assure you that, I'll never see George Osborne in the office. I can tell you he won't be in the office and I can tell you won't be sitting at a desk for one day a week.
He's being paid because these are people of influence and absolutely the caller earlier said, if he wasn't in this role, he wouldn't be attractive.
This is for organisations to have access to the inside of government, so they have a sense about what economic and policy decisions as they're going on.

https://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presente...-at-blackrock/


Rothschild Capital Partners also made a bundle as it holds 2.8% of Lockheed Martin shares, coincidentally raising its stake in the third quarter of 2017: https://bzweekly.com/2018/02/21/lock...lowered-stake/


Too bad our wonderful media isn’t able to see that the big investment funds don’t only control the industrial military complex, but the whole economy…

[Firestarter]

There are lots of stories on the internet about big pharma that for example claim that: drug prices are too high; big pharma manipulates medical trials; and sells pharmaceuticals that cause harm. I think that on this forum @donnay is by far the biggest poster on medical malpractices.
None of these stories focus on the major shareholders of big pharma; that effectively controls what these companies do. I haven’t even found a single story on how these investment giants “strangle” us through their complete control of our “health care”.

Following are some of the major shareholders in the 10 largest pharmaceutical companies in the first quarter of 2018 in the US by revenue. I focus on the US, because it’s the easiest information to get.
In all of these pharmaceutical giants; Vanguard owns more than 12.5% (and is the single largest shareholder).


Major Shareholders in Johnson & Johnson include – Vanguard Group (more than 13%); Blackrock; State Street: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/jnj/.../?guccounter=1
(archived here: http://archive.is/Pf63b)


Major Shareholders in Pfizer Inc. include – Vanguard Group (more than 13%); Blackrock; State Street: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/PFE/holders?ltr=1
(archived here: http://archive.is/KMJV3)


Major Shareholders in Merck & Co., Inc. include – Vanguard (more than 14%); Blackrock; State Street; Wellington; Capital; Price (T.Rowe): https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/MRK/holders/
(archived here: http://archive.is/IoGQj)


Major Shareholders in AbbVie Inc. include – Vanguard (more than 12.5%); Capital (more than 12%); Blackrock; State Street; Investment Company Of America: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/abbv/holders?ltr=1
(archived here: http://archive.is/LwFSo)


Major Shareholders in Abbott Laboratories include – Vanguard (more than 14.5%); Blackrock; Capital; State Street; Wellington: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/ABT/holders?ltr=1
(archived here: http://archive.is/2df3u)


Major Shareholders in Eli Lilly and Company include – Vanguard (more than 18%); Lilly Endowment, Inc (more than 11%); Blackrock; Wellington; Primecap; State Street: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/lly/holders?ltr=1
(archived here: http://archive.is/SwzST)


Major Shareholders in Amgen Inc. include – Vanguard (at least 14%); FMR (Fidelity); Blackrock; Capital; State Street; Primecap: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/amgn/holders/
(archived here: http://archive.is/zhHlk)


Major Shareholders in Bristol-Myers Squibb Company include – Vanguard (more than 18%); Wellington; Blackrock; State Street; Capital; FMR (Fidelity): https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/BMY/holders/
(archived here: http://archive.is/ObGzo)


Major Shareholders in Gilead Sciences, Inc. include – Vanguard (more than 12.5%); Blackrock; State Street; Capital; FMR (Fidelity): https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/GILD/holders/
(archived here: http://archive.is/08PzH)


Major Shareholders in Biogen Inc. include – Vanguard (more than 19%); Blackrock; Primecap; FMR (Fidelity); State Street; ClearBridge; Price (T.Rowe) Associates; Wellington.
In Biogen, more than 90% of the shares are hold by institutions: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/BIIB/holders/
(archived here: http://archive.is/3d9A5)

[donnay]

Good info. Follow the money and you open a revolving door from executives to government and from government to executive positions.

For example; Eli Lily. The Bush family ties to them is on record. George H. W. Bush sat on the company's board in the 1970's. They are also the makers of thimerosal. Just before the homeland security bill was sign by George W. Bush an unknown member (Dick Armey later admitted) of Congress inserted a provision into the legislation that blocks lawsuits against the drug maker for thimerosal.

Dick Armey admitted to it saying he did it to keep vaccine-makers from going out of business under the weight of mounting lawsuits. Of course they know what is best for you and I.

[Firestarter]

I guess that most people don’t even realise how bad it is that a small number of investment funds completely dominate our economy. The last time the financial power was this concentrated was in the days of J.P. Morgan (1837-1913)...

Here are a couple of things “they” could do.

Inflate stock prices, currency and orchestrate crashes of the economy.
When you know in advance that a crash will come, it’s even easier to get huge profits (while eliminating the “competition” at the same time) than in a “normal” market.

When the media (controlled by the big investment funds) report that the “passive funds” of BlackRock and Vanguard outperform the competition, this doesn’t really mean that they perform “better”.
This is the logical result of dominating the financial markets.

Because the same funds own (thus control) all the major corporations, these corporations aren’t competing against each other, but are colluding against the customer.

It becomes even more interesting when you think about what they could do, as they completely dominating several (or all) sectors (diversified portfolios).

Let’s assume a situation where a small amount of tenants prevent the destruction of some houses to build a huge building that is expected to make profits of many million dollars.
They could for example use psychiatrists, on the take of big pharma, to have some of these tenants declared mentally ill to get rid of them...


I’ve found a story about the effects of concentration of ownership on the price of airline tickets. If one company has an effective monopoly, the price of tickets will be higher than with competition.
Three investment funds — BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street — collectively control about 15% of the shares of major US airlines.

José Azar discussed with his colleague Isabel Tecu on how corporate behaviour might change when large investors hold diversified portfolios. Tecu had worked with airline data, and they decided to test whether airfares had been influenced by the concentration of shareholders. They asked an old classmate, Martin Schmalz, to join them.

Azar found a 1984 paper by Julio Rotemberg, who posited that “firms, acting in the interest of their shareholders” might “tend to act collusively when their shareholders have diversified portfolios”.
Rotemberg figured that if investors own a stake in every firm, they will make more money if firms compete less and collude against their customers.
Customers have already found this out, and rightfully complain about their treatment by big firms.

Index funds have grown exponentially since John Bogle founded Vanguard in the mid-1970s. BlackRock and Vanguard each manage trillions of dollars, and together with State Street hold 15 to 20 % of the stock in (almost all) major US corporations.
One journalist argues that large index funds are violating antitrust law. Another recommends that index funds should be prohibited to own stock in more than one company in one sector of the economy.

In April 2015, Azar, Schmalz, and Tecu published a draft of their paper.
They claimed that: the high concentration of share ownership had caused that ticket prices were 12% higher than they would have been with less concentration of the shareholders.

BlackRock subsequently published a 24-page report, discrediting not only the claims but even the facts. Executives at Vanguard likewise expressed scepticism.
In defence, BlackRock claimed that it votes with activists more than it votes with managers. This is a blatant lie, but please don’t let the facts get in the way of the truth...

Azar, Schmalz, and Tecu subsequently published the paper with some less harsh conclusions: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine...s-evil/534183/
(archived here: http://archive.is/TfOVU)


I’ve also looked at the full paper.
It’s sort of boring because it spends so many pages on describing the model they used.

They use the December 2009 acquisition by BlackRock of Barclays Global Investors (BGI), to estimate the effects. After the acquisition the ownership became more concentrated.
Until the first quarter of 2011, ticket prices in the treatment and control markets co-moved very closely. Since 2011, ticket prices in the treatment market (with concentrated ownership) noticeably increased more than in the control market.
See Figure 5.


Here’s the (draft) paper - Azar, Schmalz, Tecu – Anti-competitive Effects of Common Ownership (2015): https://www.hhs.se/contentassets/ab3...-id2427345.pdf

[devil21]

Last week, iirc, there was a brief news snippet (aren't the ones showing how the system really works always "brief snippets"?) about US air carriers being fined for ticket price collusion. It was a paltry ~$50m.

[Firestarter]

Last week, iirc, there was a brief news snippet (aren't the ones showing how the system really works always "brief snippets"?) about US air carriers being fined for ticket price collusion. It was a paltry ~$50m.

Isn't it strange that we sometimes hear about airlines being fined. But we never hear that the whole economy is rigged by a couple of investment funds?

I sometimes think that "brief snippets" aren't as bad as blowing up stories.
The Daily Mail (one of the biggest British newspapers) is a master at taking a little story and than simply blowing it up ten times, not by adding information, but simply by adding text (regularly I've seen the same exact sentence copied multiple times)...

[Firestarter]

I’ve searched for the major shareholders of the biggest supermarket chains in the US. I was surprised that relatively a lot of these chains aren’t publicly traded because they are “privately owned”. Many of these corporations are reportedly owned by its employees.
In the last couple of years a relatively large amount of the biggest supermarket chains have been merged to form even bigger companies.

Not publicly traded are:
Albertsons Companies LLC - “privately” owned by investors (including Cerberus Capital Management).
Aldi – privately owned (founded by ALbrecht brothers, from Germany).
H.E. Butt Grocery Company - privately owned.
Giant Eagle, Inc - privately owned.
Wegmans Food Markets, Inc - privately owned.

Hy-Vee, Inc – employee owned.
WinCo Foods LLC – employee owned.
Publix Super Markets – employee owned: http://www.4-traders.com/PUBLIX-SUPE...77682/company/

The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (A&P) - ceased supermarket operations in November 2015, after 156 years in business.
Southeastern Grocers, LLC – In May 2018, its restructuring plan was confirmed by a U.S. Bankruptcy judge in Delaware.


Amazon acquired Whole Food Market, Inc in August 2017 (labelled as a merger): https://www.reuters.com/article/us-w...-idUSKCN1B31W6


Major Shareholders in The Kroger Co. include – Vanguard Group (more than 12.9%); Blackrock; State Street; Capital; Fidelity (FMR): https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/KR/holders?ltr=1
(archived here: http://archive.is/qa9yP)


Major Shareholders in Walmart Inc. include – Vanguard Group; Blackrock; State Street; Fidelity (FMR): https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/wmt/holders?ltr=1
(archived here: http://archive.is/U1M1E)


Major Shareholders in SuperValu Inc. include – Vanguard Group (more than 19%!); Blackrock (12.7%); State Street; and iShares Core S&P Smallcap ETF; Dimensional Fund Advisors LP; Lsv Asset Management; Towle & Company: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/SVU/holders/
(archived here: http://archive.is/Os5S8)


Major Shareholders in Ingles Markets, Incorporated include – Vanguard Group; Blackrock; State Street; and Gamco Investors Inc (more than 14%); Gabelli Funds, LLC (more than 11%); Janus Henderson Group PLC; Dimensional Fund Advisors LP; River Road Asset Management, LLC; Lsv Asset Management; iShares Russell 2000 ETF: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/IMKTA/holders/
(archived here: http://archive.is/UI3Xi)

[Firestarter]

In reality it are not the supermarkets that decide what we eat, but the major corporations that supply the giant food companies like Unilever, Nestlé, Heinz, Mars, Kellogg’s and Tchibo.
These companies aren’t only the top suppliers of supermarket chains but also of the “smaller” shops. In Germany, 4 of these companies account for 85% of retail food sales.

There are a total of 4 corporations - the so-called ABCD traders - Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge, Cargill and Dreyfus that completely dominate the wheat, maize and soybeans markets. The farmers, after they harvest their products, have no choice but to sell to the ABCD traders.
According to Corporate Atlas these 4 corporations have a share of 70 % of the world market.

Since 2015, 15 mega-mergers have occurred in the food and agriculture industry.
Today, 5 corporations are controlling the production of seeds and pesticides worldwide, but their number is likely to shrink to merely four by the end of 2017.

Germany’s Bayer has acquired Monsanto in the USA to become the world’s largest provider of agrochemicals.
The US-based corporations DuPont and Dow Chemical have merged into DowDuPont.
ChemChina has acquired the Swiss-based multinational Syngenta.
These 3 corporations (after being merged) control more than 60% of the seed and agrochemical markets: https://www.dandc.eu/en/article/smal...ermarket-shelf
(archived here: http://archive.is/oIqA1)


I survive in the Netherlands, but I had never even heard of the gigantic Louis Dreyfus Company with its head office in Rotterdam.
The company's parent, Louis Dreyfus Holding B.V., is headquartered at the World Trade Center in Amsterdam (my home town). Louis Dreyfus companies has 72 offices in more than 100 countries.
Louis Dreyfus controls more than 75% of the global grain trade.

Cargill, Incorporated is a privately owned corporation based in Minnetonka, Minnesota and incorporated in Wilmington, Delaware.
It is the largest privately held corporation in the US in terms of revenue.


Major Shareholders in Archer-Daniels-Midland Company include – Vanguard (more than 13.5%); BlackRock; State Street; and State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance (more than 10%): https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/ADM/holders/
(archived here: http://archive.is/5k4fP)


Major Shareholders in Bunge Limited include – Vanguard (more than 17%!); BlackRock; State Street; Fidelity (FMR); and Price (T.Rowe) Associates (more than 11.5%); Franklin Resources: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/BG/holders/
(archived here: http://archive.is/M0mVk)


Even though Monsanto has already been acquired by Bayer, it’s still publicly traded…
Major Shareholders in Monsanto Company include – Vanguard (more than 14%); BlackRock; State Street; Fidelity (FMR); and Berkshire Hathaway; Primecap Management Company: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/MON/.../?guccounter=1
(archived here: http://archive.is/Ra0X6)


Major Shareholders in DowDuPont Inc. include – Vanguard (more than 12%); BlackRock; Fidelity (FMR); and Capital: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/DWDP/holders/
(archived here: http://archive.is/uFFAP)


Following some information on the giant food corporations...


In 2012, Kraft Foods split into two separate companies, Kraft Foods Group and Mondelez International. Mondelez took the snacks and candies brands, including Cadbury, Nabisco, and Oreo.
Major Shareholders in Mondelez International, Inc. include – Vanguard; BlackRock; State Street; Fidelity (FMR); and Trian Fund Management; JP Morgan Chase: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/MDLZ/holders/
(archived here: http://archive.is/l1EqV)


Major Shareholders in The Kraft Heinz Company include – Vanguard Group; BlackRock; State Street; and Berkshire Hathaway (more than 26.7%!); Capital: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/KHC/holders/
(archived here: http://archive.is/NKiRF)


Major Shareholders in Kellogg Company include – Vanguard; BlackRock; State Street; and Kellogg W K Foundation Trust (more than 19.5%); Keybank National Association; Capital: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/k/holders/
(archived here: http://archive.is/mJOUa)


Major Shareholders in General Mills, Inc. include – Vanguard; BlackRock; State Street; and Massachusetts Financial Services; Invesco: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/GIS/holders/
(archived here: http://archive.is/fsXip)


Major Shareholders in The Coca-Cola Company include – Vanguard; BlackRock; State Street; Fidelity (FMR); and Berkshire Hathaway; Capital: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/KO/holders/
(archived here: http://archive.is/F8WIs)

[Firestarter]

It’s strange that BlackRock is widely known as the biggest investment fund in the world, but for just about all the big corporations I checked Vanguard is the bigger shareholder.

When I looked for the major shareholders of PepsiCo on Finance.yahoo.com, for some reason it doesn’t present the detailed information I was looking for...
Major Shareholders in PepsiCo Inc. include – Vanguard (more than 15%); BlackRock; and SSgA Funds Management; Wellington Management: https://money.cnn.com/quote/sharehol...=institutional
(archived here: http://archive.is/FBieb)


Subway is the largest single-brand restaurant chain in the world and is privately owned.

Chick-fil-A is privately owned. Reportedly its founder and long-time CEO set up a contract before he died in 2014 so that his children can never go public with the chain.


Major Shareholders in McDonald's Corporation include – Vanguard (more than 13%); BlackRock; State Street; Fidelity (FMR); and Capital: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/mcd/holders/
(archived here: http://archive.is/4VTzb)


Major Shareholders in Starbucks Corporation include – Vanguard (more than 12.5%); BlackRock; State Street; Fidelity (FMR); and Capital; Morgan Stanley; Magellan Asset Management; Bank Of New York Mellon Corporation: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/SBUX/holders/
(archived here: http://archive.is/yJR1j)


YUM! Brands is the parent company of amongst others Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC.
Major Shareholders in YUM! Brands, Inc. include – Vanguard; BlackRock; State Street; and Price (T.Rowe) Associates (more than 14.5%); Magellan Asset Management; Bank Of New York Mellon Corporation: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/yum/holders/
(archived here: http://archive.is/p5QRp)


Restaurant Brands International is the (Canadian) parent company of amongst others Burger King.
Major Shareholders in Restaurant Brands International Inc. include – Fidelity (FMR); Vanguard; and Pershing Square Capital Management (10.9%); Price (T.Rowe) Associates; Royal Bank of Canada; Principal Financial Group; Berkshire Hathaway; Franklin Resources; Principal Mid Cap Fund; Bank of Montreal/Can/: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/QSR/.../?guccounter=1
(archived here: http://archive.is/iuuIc)


Major Shareholders in The Wendy's Company include – Vanguard (more than 12%); BlackRock; State Street; and Trian Fund Management (16.3%!); Eminence Capital; Wells Fargo; Janus Henderson; Victory Capital: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/WEN/holders/
(archived here: http://archive.is/ztNXE)


Only 3 companies own more than 52% of Dunkin' Brands – Vanguard; Price (T.Rowe); Janus Henderson.
Major Shareholders in Dunkin' Brands Group, Inc. include – Vanguard (more than 16.5%!); BlackRock; Fidelity (FMR); State Street; and Price (T.Rowe) Associates (more than 20%!); Janus Henderson (more than 15.5%!); Goldman Sachs: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/dnkn/holders/
(archived here: http://archive.is/DEr0q)


Major Shareholders in Domino's Pizza, Inc. include – Vanguard (more than 16%!); BlackRock (12.4%); State Street; and Renaissance Technologies; Tiger Global Management; Viking Global Investors; Capital; William Blair Investment Management; iShares; Smallcap World Fund: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/DPZ/holders/
(archived here: http://archive.is/UDLfS)