'Super-Entity' Of 147 Companies At Center Of World's Economy, Study Claims

Barclays Bank tops the Swiss researchers' rankings

A Swiss study appears to have uncovered what anti-capitalist activists have been claiming for years -- that the global economy is controlled by a small group of deeply interconnected entities.

But don't grab a pitchfork and head to the nearest Occupy protest just yet. Systems researchers say this isn't the result of an Illuminati-type global conspiracy, but rather a natural force to be expected.

"Such structures are common in nature," complex systems expert George Sudihara told NewScientist.

According to the study's authors -- a trio of systems researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology -- the research isn't ideologically motivated. Instead, they say, it's the first attempt at mapping the power structure of the global economy, an effort that may help to prevent future financial crises.

What they found, they say, was an economy so deeply interconnected that its structure is alarmingly susceptible to shocks.

The researchers say that while there's nothing wrong, in and of itself, with the concentration of capital in the hands of a small number of companies, when those companies become too interconnected, they can cause chain reactions that can harm the economy.

"If one [company] suffers distress," study co-author James Glattfelder said, "this propagates [itself]."


That fits with recent experience; the financial crisis of 2008 began as a problem of excessive liabilities at a handful of companies. But these companies had financial links to the rest of the industry, and their insolvency threatened to take down the entire financial system.

The 5 companies at the top of the Swiss researchers' rankings.



1: Barclays Bank

2: Capital Group Companies

3: Fidelity Investments

4: AXA Insurance

5: State Street Corporation



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