{"id":642222,"date":"2013-02-13T12:21:05","date_gmt":"2013-02-13T17:21:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.ted.com\/?p=69323"},"modified":"2013-02-13T12:34:24","modified_gmt":"2013-02-13T17:34:24","slug":"who-controls-the-world-resources-for-understanding-this-visualization-of-the-global-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/642222","title":{"rendered":"Who controls the world? Resources for understanding this visualization of the global economy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class='embed-youtube' style='text-align:center; display: block;'><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text\/html' width='586' height='360' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Qbd74sVW4yQ?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;%23038;fs=1&#038;%23038;showsearch=0&#038;%23038;showinfo=1&#038;%23038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;%23038;wmode=transparent' frameborder='0'><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Occupy Wall Street\u2019s slogan \u201cWe are the 99%\u201d had been echoing through the United States and the world for just over a month when James B. Glattfelder and his co-authors released the study \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.plosone.org\/article\/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0025995\">The Network of Global Corporate Control<\/a>\u201d in October 2011. The study was a scientific look at our global economy, revealing how control flows like water through pipes &#8212; some thin, some thick \u2014 between people and companies. The finding: that control of our economy is highly tightly concentrated into a small core of top players, leaving us all vulnerable to fast-spreading economic distress.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ted.com\/talks\/james_b_glattfelder_who_controls_the_world.html\" class=\"video_teaser\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.ted.com\/images\/ted\/2a46d8d424ce31486b5ebb8278ade834cd6aefe7_240x180.jpg\" alt=\"James B. Glattfelder: Who controls the world?\" width=\"132\" height=\"99\" \/>James B. Glattfelder: Who controls the world?<span class=\"play\"><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ted.com\/talks\/james_b_glattfelder_who_controls_the_world.html\">today\u2019s talk<\/a>, filmed at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tedxzurich.com\/\">TEDxZurich<\/a>, Glattfelder reveals that the impetus of the study wasn\u2019t at all to validate global protesters. Instead, the study was conducted out of a desire to understand the laws that govern our economy, in the same way that we understand the laws that govern the physical world around us. Glattfelder and his co-authors Stefania Vitali and Stefano Battiston\u00a0are complex systems theorists, meaning that they study a whole &#8212; for example, an ant colony or the human brain &#8212; as more than just the sum of its part. Complexity theory examines interactions between parts, looking for the simple rules that emerge when viewed en masse.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIdeas relating to finance, economics and politics are very often tainted by people\u2019s personal ideologies. I hope that this complexity perspective allows for some common ground to be found, \u201c Glattfelder says in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ted.com\/talks\/james_b_glattfelder_who_controls_the_world.html\">today\u2019s talk<\/a>. \u201cIt would be great if it has the power to help end the gridlock of conflicting ideas, which appear to be paralyzing our global world. Reality is so complex &#8212; we need to move away from dogma. But this is only my personal ideology.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To hear more about how the study was conducted, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ted.com\/talks\/james_b_glattfelder_who_controls_the_world.html\">watch this talk<\/a>. And to learn more about the results, and how they were received, keep reading.<\/p>\n<p>To answer the question, \u201cWho controls the world?\u201d the study looked at ownership networks, breaking it down to nodes (such as firms, people, governments, foundations), links (the percentage of ownership) and value. Overall, the study looked at:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>13 million ownership relations<\/li>\n<li>43,000 transnational corporations<\/li>\n<li>600,000 nodes<\/li>\n<li>1 million links<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>At the top of this post is a 3D rendering of all the connections in this study. The dots represent the transnational corporations, nodes and links. Any section of it looks something like this.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-69325\" alt=\"Global-Control-1\" src=\"http:\/\/tedconfblog.files.wordpress.com\/2013\/02\/global-control-1.jpg?w=900\"   \/><\/p>\n<p>As Glattfelder explains, in this ecosystem of transnational corporations, there is a periphery and there is a center &#8212; a connected network that contains about 75% of all the players. Nestled in this center is what the study calls the core. This core contains 1,300 highly connected nodes. While only 36% of transnational corporations are in this core, they make up 95% of the value of the entire network.\u00a0This image will help to illustrate the core.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-69324\" alt=\"Global-control-2\" src=\"http:\/\/tedconfblog.files.wordpress.com\/2013\/02\/global-control-2.jpg?w=900\"   \/><\/p>\n<p>The authors of this study also assigned each player in this system a degree of influence. And overall, they found that the 737 top shareholders have the potential to control 80% of all the transnational corporations\u2019 value. These top shareholders are mostly financial institutions in the US and UK. The first 10 on the list:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left:30px;\">1. Barclays plc<br \/>\n2. Capital Group Companies Inc.<br \/>\n3. FMR Corporation<br \/>\n4. AXA<br \/>\n5. State Street Corporation<br \/>\n6. JP Morgan Chase &amp; Co.<br \/>\n7. Legal &amp; General Group plc<br \/>\n8. Vanguard Group Inc.<br \/>\n9. UBS AG<br \/>\n10. Merrill Lynch &amp; Co Inc.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left:30px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/ethz.focproject.net\/viewer\/tnc\">Download the full list here \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n<p>But their findings get even more extreme. The 146 top players in the core &#8212; representing just .024% of all the nodes studied &#8212; have the ability to control about 40% of transnational corporations\u2019 value. This high degree of interconnectivity means that not only are we all highly influenced by a few &#8212; but that their distress is able to spread like wildfire.<\/p>\n<p>The study, published in <i>PLOS ONE<\/i> at just the right time, quickly went viral. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.plosone.org\/article\/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0025995#abstract0\">Read the study in its entirety \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Or check out some of the stories that ran about it:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/mg21228354.500-revealed--the-capitalist-network-that-runs-the-world.html\"><i>The New Scientist: <\/i>Revealed &#8212; the capitalist network that runs the world<\/a> (Oct. 24, 2011)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.themontrealreview.com\/2009\/The-Organizing-Principles-Behind-Economy-Complex-Systems.php\"><i>The Montreal Review<\/i>: Decoding Complexity<\/a> (April 2012)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/publicintelligence.net\/global-network-of-corporate-control\/\"><i>Public Intelligence<\/i>: Network of 147 companies control nearly 40% of global economic value of transnational corporations<\/a> (Oct. 21, 2011)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/view\/generic\/id\/333389\/description\/Financial_world_dominated_by_a_few_deep_pockets\"><i>Science News<\/i>: Financial world dominated by a few deep pockets<\/a> (Sept. 24, 2011)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.ca\/2011\/10\/24\/super-entity-147-global-economy-swiss-researchers_n_1028690.html\">Huffington Post: \u2018Super-Entity\u2019 of 147 companies at center of world\u2019s economy, study claims<\/a> (Oct. 24, 2011)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mediafreedominternational.org\/2012\/04\/04\/small-network-of-corporations-run-the-global-economy\/\">Media Freedom International: Small network of corporations run the global Economy<\/a> (April 4, 2012)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.globalresearch.ca\/bankers-rule-the-world-the-network-of-global-corporate-control\/28235\">Global Research: Bankers rule the world<\/a> (Dec. 16, 2011)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As the story spread, Glattfeld and his co-authors took on the issue of whether their study was a proof of a conspiracy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur study does NOT claim that the actors in the core are colluding. NOR does it claim that this structure is the result of some intentional design. We actually think that it probably emerges \u2018naturally,\u2019 as a result of simple mechanisms that are at work in the market,\u201d they <a href=\"http:\/\/ethz.focproject.net\/viewer\/tnc\">write here<\/a>. \u201cWhat we claim is that further studies are needed to investigate the implications of such a structure, because it is very well possible that it is [endangers] market competition and financial stability.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>  <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/feeds.wordpress.com\/1.0\/gocomments\/tedconfblog.wordpress.com\/69323\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.wordpress.com\/1.0\/comments\/tedconfblog.wordpress.com\/69323\/\" \/><\/a> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/stats.wordpress.com\/b.gif?host=blog.ted.com&#038;blog=14795620&#038;%23038;post=69323&#038;%23038;subd=tedconfblog&#038;%23038;ref=&#038;%23038;feed=1\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/TEDBlog\/~4\/LBQVBhiOx3U\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Occupy Wall Street\u2019s slogan \u201cWe are the 99%\u201d had been echoing through the United States and the world for just over a month when James B. Glattfelder and his co-authors released the study \u201cThe Network of Global Corporate Control\u201d in October 2011. The study was a scientific look at our global economy, revealing how control [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7344,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-642222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7344"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642222\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}