Concentrating
Wealth and Power
Top 20 Investment Funds
Largest 205 Corporations
Key Fact
BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street are the single largest shareholder in 40 percent of all listed US companies.
Source: (Haberly and Wójcik, 2016)
And their investment helps concentrate power in companies too
Out of $1.43 trillion global foreign direct investments in 2017, nearly half went into consolidating corporate power rather than new investments for the future:
Mergers and Acquisitions
$694 billion
Greenfield (New) Investments
$720 billion
Key Fact
In a survey of 390 deals worth $700 billion, 55% of private equity firms cut long-term investments, not increased them, resulting in slower growth, not faster growth.
Source: (Rasmussen, 2018)
Top four firms’ share of total revenue within their sector in the US
across 893 industries, grouped by sector*
IT, telecoms and media
Retail trade
Finance and insurance
All sectors
Key Fact
Two-thirds of all US corporate sectors have become more concentrated since 1997.
Source: (The Economist, 2016)
And the rich keep getting richer
Corporations have funneled all this money into increasing their market share to inflate share prices to record levels.
US companies’ global return on capital
Source: (The Economist, 2016)
Household ownership of US stock market
Source: (Wolff, 2017)
As stock ownership is concentrated in just a few hands, pumped up share prices mainly benefit the rich.
THE RICHEST 1% OWN 45% OF THE WORLD’S WEALTH
Source: Credit Suisse, Global Wealth Databook
