the concentration of power is a weakness -- Shahid Bolsen

Now, you know, everyone is is angry, understandably, about the the high concentration of ownership and control that has developed over the last few decades. The consolidation of ownership, the consolidation of power, the consolidation of control and the high concentration of power, the owners and controllers of global financialized capital. This is a relatively small number of people whose interests are represented and managed by an even smaller number of institutions and organizations. However, in my opinion, this is ultimately a useful thing for activists or can be a useful thing for activists because when we're talking about corporations, corporations for the owners and controllers of global financialized capital, corporations are financial instruments, nothing more. It's just a way that they organize their money.

It's a channel for them. So we have to understand that our dialogue, our negotiation isn't with any particular company. Our negotiation is always going to be with the owners, with the shareholding class. Like for example, BlackRock, the asset management company, the biggest asset management company in the world. They own enough shares to have voting rights in over 20,000 companies worldwide.

20,000 companies. The next biggest asset management company is Vanguard. And they own enough shares to have voting rights in 15,000 companies. Now, you can't really combine the two and say that that means 35,000 companies because of course there's overlap. BlackRock and Vanguard own large percentages of shares in many of the same companies.

But if there is any company that Vanguard has a share in that BlackRock does not have a share in, then BlackRock has a share in it because Vanguard does because Vanguard is a major shareholder of BlackRock and BlackRock is a major shareholder of Vanguard. So they all own the same companies. So there will be some there's there's a great deal of overlap obviously between the companies that, BlackRock has a has shares in and that Vanguard has shares in and that they both have voting rights in. But the fact that Vanguard has voting rights and BlackRock has voting rights in these companies means that the the two of them together work in concert, meaning they have really controlling vote, voting power. In at least 20,000 companies, you can assume that it's a bit more than 20,000 because there will be some that one owns that the other doesn't own.

So in other words, what that means or what that what that can mean for activists, our negotiations are going to be with them. The company, the corporation is just a channel of communication like a transistor radio channel. It's just a way of communication with the OCGFC. So, for example, if you had a company that you wanted to influence, that you wanted to impact in some way. And maybe that company is not a, what you call a public facing company.

It's not a consumer business, it's not customer based business like say aerospace or the defense industry or some tech companies. You're not going to call the customer service desk of Raytheon for example or General Dynamics or Boeing. But if you want to have an impact on those companies, well, they have the same owners as companies that are public facing. They have the same owners as McDonald's. BlackRock and Vanguard and State Street, which is a smaller one, but it's also massive.

They have ownership and voting rights in, for example, Raytheon, General Dynamics, Boeing, but they also have interests in 20,000 other companies. More than 20,000 companies. That means that you can communicate with them through any of those 20,000 channels. You have 20,000 channels of communication with the owners and controllers of Global Financial Life Capital if you choose to use them. You don't have to think about, in what way could I possibly influence Boeing?

It's not a customer business. I can't boycott Boeing. I can't boycott Raytheon. No. But you can influence the customer based, customer reliant businesses that are also owned by the owners of Raytheon and Boeing and General Dynamics and so on.

Just use a different line of communication, an indirect line of communication. They see corporations as just ways that they organize their money, so you have to see them that way too. Don't see them as their own independent institutions. They are vehicles through which you can reach and negotiate with the owners and controllers of global financialized capital.