"@samsara one of the picture you uploaded is not visible...if it is the one that shows how a very few trusts/corporations/holdings own practically all the MNC then it is great...otherwise, please, dig it. The research was done by a Swiss professor not some blogger. I believe someone in UK also did some work on it."
@Sinopakfriend, just furnish additional info on my earlier casual mentioning about "The Network of Global Corporate Control". Yes, it's a dissertation work by a Swiss PhD candidate back then... now Dr. James B. Glattfelder (from Switzerland)
~~~~~~~~~~
The Network of Global Corporate Control by James B. Glattfelder
Diss. ETH No. 19274
Ownership Networks and Corporate Control: Mapping Economic Power in a Globalized World
A dissertation submitted to the
ETH ZURICH
for the degree of Dr. sc. ETH Zurich
presented by JAMES B. GLATTFELDER, Dipl. Phys. ETH
born August 19, 1972, citizen of Switzerland
accepted on the recommendation of
Prof. Dr. Dr. Frank Schweitzer, examiner
Prof. Dr. Guido Caldarelli, co-examiner
2010
The dissertation in PDF:
http://e-collection.library.ethz.ch/eserv/eth:2007/eth-2007-02.pdf
(13.5 MB; 258 pages)
-------------------
Research Article
The Network of Global Corporate Control
Stefania Vitali, James B. Glattfelder, Stefano Battiston
Published: October 26, 2011
Abstract
The structure of the control network of transnational corporations affects global market competition and financial stability. So far, only small national samples were studied and there was no appropriate methodology to assess control globally. We present the first investigation of the architecture of the international ownership network, along with the computation of the control held by each global player. We find that transnational corporations form 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 researchers and policy makers.
Read the rest at:
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0025995
-------------------
And finally, this brief form article, the most readable source among these three links wonder any one cares to read a 258-page dissertation or even the much shorter Research article ha ha ha
EXCLUSIVE 19 October 2011
Revealed – the capitalist network that runs the world
The 1318 transnational corporations that form the core of the economy. Superconnected companies are red,
very connected companies are yellow. The size of the dot represents revenue - PLoS One
By Andy Coghlan and Debora MacKenzie -
NewScientist Magazine
AS PROTESTS against financial power
sweep the world this week, science may have confirmed the protesters’ worst fears.
An analysis of the relationships between 43,000 transnational corporations has identified
a relatively small group of companies, mainly banks, with disproportionate power over the global economy.
The study’s assumptions have attracted some criticism, but complex systems analysts contacted by New Scientist say it is a unique effort to untangle control in the global economy. Pushing the analysis further, they say, could help to identify ways of making global capitalism more stable.
The idea that a few bankers control a large chunk of the global economy might not seem like news to New York’s
Occupy Wall Street movement and protesters elsewhere (see photo). But the study, by a trio of complex systems theorists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, is the first to go beyond ideology to empirically identify such a network of power. It combines the mathematics long used to model natural systems with comprehensive corporate data to map ownership among the world’s transnational corporations (TNCs).
“Reality is so complex, we must move away from dogma, whether it’s conspiracy theories or free-market,” says
James Glattfelder. “Our analysis is reality-based.”
Previous studies have found that a few TNCs own large chunks of the world’s economy, but they included only a limited number of companies and omitted indirect ownerships, so could not say how this affected the global economy – whether it made it more or less stable, for instance.
The Zurich team can. From
Orbis 2007, a database listing 37 million companies and investors worldwide, they pulled out all 43,060 TNCs and the share ownerships linking them. Then they constructed a model of which companies controlled others through shareholding networks, coupled with each company’s operating revenues, to map the structure of economic power.
The work, to be published in PLoS One, revealed a core of 1318 companies with interlocking ownerships (see image). Each of the 1318 had ties to two or more other companies, and on average they were connected to 20. What’s more, although they represented 20 per cent of global operating revenues, the 1318 appeared to collectively own through their shares the majority of the world’s large blue chip and manufacturing firms – the “real” economy – representing a further 60 per cent of global revenues.
When the team further untangled the web of ownership, it found much of it tracked back to a “super-entity” of 147 even more tightly knit companies – all of their ownership was held by other members of the super-entity – that controlled 40 per cent of the total wealth in the network. “In effect, less than 1 per cent of the companies were able to control 40 per cent of the entire network,” says Glattfelder. Most were financial institutions. The top 20 included Barclays Bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and The Goldman Sachs Group.
John Driffill of the University of London, a macroeconomics expert, says the value of the analysis is not just to see if a small number of people controls the global economy, but rather its insights into economic stability.
Concentration of power is not good or bad in itself, says the Zurich team, but the core’s tight interconnections could be. As the world learned in 2008,
such networks are unstable. “If one [company] suffers distress,” says Glattfelder, “this propagates.”
“It’s disconcerting to see how connected things really are,” agrees George Sugihara of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, a complex systems expert who has advised Deutsche Bank.
Yaneer Bar-Yam, head of the New England Complex Systems Institute (NECSI), warns that the analysis assumes ownership equates to control, which is not always true. Most company shares are held by fund managers who may or may not control what the companies they part-own actually do. The impact of this on the system’s behaviour, he says, requires more analysis.
Crucially, by identifying the architecture of global economic power, the analysis could help make it more stable. By finding the vulnerable aspects of the system, economists can suggest measures to prevent future collapses spreading through the entire economy. Glattfelder says we may need global anti-trust rules, which now exist only at national level, to limit over-connection among TNCs. Sugihara says the analysis suggests one possible solution: firms should be taxed for excess interconnectivity to discourage this risk.
One thing won’t chime with some of the protesters’ claims: the super-entity is unlikely to be the intentional result of a conspiracy to rule the world. “Such structures are common in nature,” says Sugihara.
Newcomers to any network connect preferentially to highly connected members. TNCs buy shares in each other for business reasons, not for world domination. If connectedness clusters, so does wealth, says Dan Braha of NECSI: in similar models, money flows towards the most highly connected members. The Zurich study, says Sugihara, “is strong evidence that simple rules governing TNCs give rise spontaneously to highly connected groups”. Or as Braha puts it: “The Occupy Wall Street claim that 1 per cent of people have most of the wealth reflects a logical phase of the self-organising economy.”
So, the super-entity may not result from conspiracy. The real question, says the Zurich team, is whether it can exert concerted political power. Driffill feels 147 is too many to sustain collusion. Braha suspects they will compete in the market but act together on common interests. Resisting changes to the network structure may be one such common interest.
When this article was first posted, the comment in the final sentence of the paragraph beginning “Crucially, by identifying the architecture of global economic power…” was misattributed.
The top 50 of the 147 superconnected companies
1. Barclays plc
2. Capital Group Companies Inc
3. FMR Corporation
4. AXA
5. State Street Corporation
6. JP Morgan Chase & Co
7. Legal & General Group plc
8. Vanguard Group Inc
9. UBS AG
10. Merrill Lynch & Co Inc
11. Wellington Management Co LLP
12. Deutsche Bank AG
13. Franklin Resources Inc
14. Credit Suisse Group
15. Walton Enterprises LLC
16. Bank of New York Mellon Corp
17. Natixis
18. Goldman Sachs Group Inc
19. T Rowe Price Group Inc
20. Legg Mason Inc
21. Morgan Stanley
22. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc
23. Northern Trust Corporation
24. Société Générale
25. Bank of America Corporation
26. Lloyds TSB Group plc
27. Invesco plc
28. Allianz SE 29. TIAA
30. Old Mutual Public Limited Company
31. Aviva plc
32. Schroders plc
33. Dodge & Cox
34. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc*
35. Sun Life Financial Inc
36. Standard Life plc
37. CNCE
38. Nomura Holdings Inc
39. The Depository Trust Company
40. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance
41. ING Groep NV
42. Brandes Investment Partners LP
43. Unicredito Italiano SPA
44. Deposit Insurance Corporation of Japan
45. Vereniging Aegon
46. BNP Paribas
47. Affiliated Managers Group Inc
48. Resona Holdings Inc
49. Capital Group International Inc
50. China Petrochemical Group Company
* Lehman still existed in the 2007 dataset used
Graphic: The 1318 transnational corporations that form the core of the economy
(Data: PLoS One
)
NewScientist Magazine issue 2835, published 22 October 2011
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And this one too! STILL QUITE READABLE!!
The Network of Global Corporate Control
Posted by Gordon -
Tapnewswire 2015.07.16
Image from Global Research
By Christine Lepisto
A Few Companies Have Power Over Most of the Real Economy
The idea that the few dominate the many will not come as news to those gathered either to
occupy wall street or to
occupy everywhere. But up until now it has been just an intuition that a few corporations control the world.
Not any more. A team of Swiss mathematicians just proved that out of over 43,000 transnational corporations (TNCs), relatively
few control almost 80% of the global economy. Find out who has the power below.
Global Domination a Facebook Phenomenon, Not a Conspiracy
The team, led by S. Vitali of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, used a method of analysis often applied to connectivity in the internet. Called the “
bow-tie model,” the method assigns companies onto the parts of a bow-tie.
Inter-connected companies sit on the knot of the bow tie shape. All of the companies in the knot have control relationships to other companies in the knot and are themselves controlled by other companies in the knot. Companies which control those in the knot, but are not themselves controlled in return, are visualized on one wing of the bow-tie. And companies controlled by those in the knot, but not themselves controlling, are on the other wing of the bowtie.
The fact that a small number of companies are highly connected in the knot does not prove unbalanced control; after all, it is normal in networking that everyone wants a connection to the powerful few, who connect out to those who can offer something in return. But by combining the bow-tie topology with a control ranking, the team came to an amazing conclusion.
Less than 1% of Companies in Control
see here
Above image is automatically down scaled by the host.
The full-size image (2 MB) with good readability can be found here
The team found a core of 1318 companies (mostly financial services companies) with an average of 20 control links each amongst themselves. These 1318 companies represent only 0.7% of the TNCs but 18.7% of the revenue of all TNCs. When one adds in the 59.8% of the revenues from companies on the wing of the bow-tie controlled by those in the knot, these companies control almost 80% of the global economy.
A “super-entity” of 147 companies, or 0.3% of all TNCs, holds control over fully 40% of the economic value of TNCs. In the words of the authors:
4/10 of the control over the economic value of TNCs in the world is held, via a complicated web of ownership relations, by a group of 147 TNCs in the core, which has almost full control over itself.
The Danger: Conflict of Interest and Stability Risk, Not Conspiracy
This study is a sitting duck for those who want to twist the results to prove a huge conspiracy theory. But that would risk seeking the wrong solution, because this strong connectivity stems from a natural organization of entities in networks, not from conspiracy.
But as those who occupy everywhere loudly make known, when less than 1% are in control, the risk of instability is too high. “Too Big to Fail” arises when too few control too much.
As the world rises up against economic injustice, Truthout brings you the latest news and analysis, free of corporate influence. Help support this work with a tax-deductible donation today.
Additionally, there are conflicts of interest inherent in the strong interconnectivity found by this study. Although this core may not be conspiring, it would be naive to suggest that the end effect does not suffer from the same economic downsides that governments and financial regulators attempt when preventing monopolistic practices. Or that this level of inter-connected, concentrated control does not harm fair trade, the environment, and other causes essential to sustainability but secondary to free market capitalism.
Observers have derided the Occupiers for not having a plan for change. But effective change requires understanding the outset conditions. This study proves what we have all suspected, and offers some powerful tools to begin to address the risks of instability and lopsided power intrinsic in the current global economic system.
The authors suggest that new regulatory mechanisms will have to extend beyond national borders. They are almost certainly right.
The Top 50 Control Holders*
- BARCLAYS PLC (GB)
- THE CAPITAL GROUP COMPANIES INC (US)
- FMR CORP (US)
- AXA (FR)
- STATE STREET CORPORATION (US)
- JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. (US)
- LEGAL & GENERAL GROUP PLC (GB)
- THE VANGUARD GROUP, INC. (US)
- UBS AG (CH)
- MERRILL LYNCH & CO., INC. (US)
- WELLINGTON MANAGEMENT CO. L.L.P. (US)
- DEUTSCHE BANK AG (DE)
- FRANKLIN RESOURCES, INC. (US)
- CREDIT SUISSE GROUP (CH)
- WALTON ENTERPRISES LLC (US)
- BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON CORP. (US)
- NATIXIS (FR)
- THE GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP, INC. (US)
- T. ROWE PRICE GROUP, INC. (US)
- LEGG MASON, INC. (US)
- MORGAN STANLEY (US)
- MITSUBISHI UFJ FINANCIAL GROUP, INC. (JP)
- NORTHERN TRUST CORPORATION (US)
- SOCIÉTÉ GÉNÉRALE (FR)
- BANK OF AMERICA CORPORATION (US)
- LLOYDS TSB GROUP PLC (GB)
- INVESCO PLC (GB)
- ALLIANZ SE (DE)
- TIAA (US)
- OLD MUTUAL PUBLIC LIMITED COMPANY (GB)
- AVIVA PLC (GB)
- SCHRODERS PLC (GB)
- DODGE & COX (US)
- LEHMAN BROTHERS HOLDINGS, INC. (US)
- SUN LIFE FINANCIAL, INC. (CA)
- STANDARD LIFE PLC (GB)
- CNCE (FR)
- NOMURA HOLDINGS, INC. (JP)
- THE DEPOSITORY TRUST COMPANY (US)
- MASSACHUSETTS MUTUAL LIFE INSUR. (US)
- ING GROEP N.V. (NL)
- BRANDES INVESTMENT PARTNERS, L.P. (US)
- UNICREDITO ITALIANO SPA (IT)
- DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION OF JP (JP)
- VERENIGING AEGON (NL)
- BNP PARIBAS (FR)
- AFFILIATED MANAGERS GROUP, INC. (US)
- RESONA HOLDINGS, INC. (JP)
- CAPITAL GROUP INTERNATIONAL, INC.(US)
- CHINA PETROCHEMICAL GROUP CO. (CN)
*according to the scientific paper
The network of global corporate control
Sources:
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/4217:the-network-of-global-corporate-control
http://www.businessinsider.com/this...ection-to-everything-in-the-world-2012-6?IR=T