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The defining political issue of 2012 won't be the government's size. It will be who government is for. Americans have never much liked government. After all, the nation was conceived in a revolution against government.
But while Occupy Wall Street protestors may be slightly exaggerating in calling themselves the 99 per cent, a recent study conducted by the Swiss Institute of Technology in Zurich shows that they aren’t too far off the mark.
Drawing from a 2007 Orbis database, which lists 37 million companies and investors spanning the globe, the researchers focused on 43,000 transnational corporations and the share ownership which connected them. Based on their analysis, the Swiss team found that a core of companies, the majority of which are in the banking sector, yield excessive power over the global economy, the weekly New Scientist magazine reports.
Within this group, 1,318 companies with intertwined ownership structures were on average connected to 20 other companies.
Representing some 20 per cent of global operating revenues, the study also shows this group of 1,318 controls the bulk of the largest blue chip and manufacturing firms. In terms of the real economy – the part which produces actual goods and services – they take in some 60 per cent of global revenues.
Robert Reich points out the inequities in American politics that have skewed the law to favor corporations and the elite over individuals. This should be required reading.
Robert Reich: The Defining Issue: Not Government's Size, But Who It's For
"In effect, less than one per cent of the companies were able to control 40 per cent of the entire network," says James Glattfelder, one of the researchers behind the study, as cited by the New Scientist.
And when it comes to the top 50 groups within the super-entity, more than a few would be familiar to those who have been camping out in downtown Manhattan over the last month.
Bank of America Corporation, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Merrill Lynch & Co Inc, and JP Morgan Chase & Co were included among the top 25.
Now the question is who are the political champions of this theft from the 99% ?
