{"id":2873,"date":"2023-08-18T15:45:17","date_gmt":"2023-08-18T22:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.armenshirvanian.com\/podcast\/?p=2873"},"modified":"2023-08-18T15:47:00","modified_gmt":"2023-08-18T22:47:00","slug":"408-john-coates-financial-institutions-that-control-in-the-problem-of-twelve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.armenshirvanian.com\/podcast\/408-john-coates-financial-institutions-that-control-in-the-problem-of-twelve\/","title":{"rendered":"408: John Coates | Financial Institutions That Control In “The Problem Of Twelve”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A \u201cproblem of twelve\u201d arises when a small number of institutions acquire the means to exert outsized influence over the politics and economy of a nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Big Four index funds of Vanguard, State Street, Fidelity, and BlackRock control more than twenty percent of the votes of S&P 500 companies\u2014a concentration of power that\u2019s unprecedented in America. Then there\u2019s the rise of private equity funds such as the Big Four of Apollo, Blackstone, Carlyle and KKR, which has amassed $2.7 trillion of assets, and are eroding the legitimacy and accountability of American capitalism, not by controlling public companies, but by taking them over entirely, and removing them from public discourse and public scrutiny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This quiet accumulation in the last few decades represents a dramatic transformation in how the American economy operates\u2014a sea change that few of us have noticed and all of us need to consider. Harvard law professor John Coates forcefully calls our attention to what is sure to be one of the major political and economic issues of our time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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