Does BlackRock own the world?

What if I told you that there’s a company so powerful on the planet today, that it affects almost every single aspect of our lives?

A company that is so rich that they hold more assets than the GDP of every single country in the world, except for two (USA and China).

And what if I also told you that it’s very likely that you are responsible for the funding of this company and allowing it to do what it does? And even if you tried your absolute hardest, it would almost be impossible for you to stop giving them money.

The scary fact is that this company does exist, and you have most likely never heard its name before. The company is BlackRock.

This is important to understand how the ownership of the planet works and who might be pulling the strings of almost everything in our entire lives. And likely, you’re contributing to this whole mess by funding this whole entire show.

Ok, let’s talk about BlackRock and some of the giant problems that are associated with this enormous company.

First and foremost, BR is the largest asset management firm on the planet. They own stocks, ownership of companies, property and a ton of other stuff. Of course, with the main purpose of driving profit for themselves and their shareholders.

And they own a part of almost everything.

You’re for sure (if you live in the USA) a client of one of the seven biggest banks in America and, in some way or another, if you get loans, do your banking, have investments, your pension fund etc, you’re likely connected to one of these banks. But who owns these banks? Well, in one way or another, BlackRock does. BR is either the largest or one of the largest shareholders in all of these seven banks. All of them.

So if you are part of the general American banking system, it’s likely you don’t really have a choice wheter or not to deal with BR, and you’re putting your trust in them to hold some of your money.

You might think you have a choice with banking, but really, it’s an illusion of choice.

But if you don’t live in America, don’t think that you are safe, because it’s likely that you are within BR’s reach as well. For example, BR owns shares in the four biggest Australian banks, and it is the single largest shareholder in all of these banks. In Germany, they own part of the DB, Commerzbank, as well as owning a big part of Germany’s postal system. In the UK, they are the largest shareholder in Lloyds bank, and throughout Europe there are almost no country that BR doesn’t own shares, in at least one financial institution.

When you put your money into pension funds, your fund puts it into investments to help it grow for retirement. But it’s probably likely that you don’t have a say where this money is actually going. But it doesn’t really matter anyway, because they’re all basically investing with BR.

And what about insurance? Well, many of the largest insurance companies, such as AIG or Allianz, are either owned in part or invest with BR’s funds.

So, it doesn’t really matter where you’re putting your money anyway, bacause in some way your money is finding its way to BR.

But it does get even crazier than this. To really show you BR’s reach, you just don’t look directly at what they own, you also look what they own by association. BR owns a stake in many investment firms and investment banks around the world.

(to be continued…)