World View :: Who Controls The World? | James B. Glattfelder

As engaged active citizen in global society,  it's important to have an open view on what's going on in the world. The series "World View" gives different opinions on different topics.

In this video, James B. Glattfelder explains his research on "Who Controls The World"? 

At the end of this article, there's also the download link to his paper. 

Who Controls The World? 

Can't see the video on this page? Try this link: http://youtu.be/NgbqXsA62Qs

Do we understand the economic systems that drive our modern societies? 

Sadly, not. It gets worse. 

We spend astronomical figures on understanding the origins of the universe, while we still don't understand the conditions for a stable society, a functioning economy or piece.

How can this be possible? 

Networks are ideal representations of complex systems.
The nodes in the network are the system's compenents.
The links are given by the interactions.

Where are economic networks? There is a big gap in the literature here.
The study went viral on internet and attracted a lot of interest.
What we looked at in detail was "ownership networks".
The links represent shareholder relations.

Ownership is related to control.
This gives you answers to: who are the key players?
What is the overall distribution of control?
Or in other words: "Who controls the world".
It has implications for systemic risk.

A high degree of inter-connectivity can be bad for the stability. 

We started with a database containing 30.000.000 ownership relations.
We decided to focus on Trans National Corporations (TNC's) ► 43.000 TNC's.
This gives 600.000 nodes, 1.000.000 links.
This is what we further analysed.

The dominant core in the center 36% of the TNC's are in the core.
They make up 95% of the Total Operating Revenue of ALL the TNC's. 

Ownership gives voting rights to shareholders.
The network really matters.

What's the control over the TNC's value?
This is the probability of imposing one's own will in despite of opposition of others.

737 top players have the potential to control 80% of the TNC's value.
0.123% → 80%

It's even more extreme.

146 top players in the core have the potential to control 40% of the TNC's value. 0.024% → 40%

This could propose a signific systemic risk to the global economy.

Watch and listen to this video for more stunning figures and insights.
You can download the paper via this link: click here.