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Summary
In the chapter “Financial Core of the Transnational Corporate Class,” authors Peter Phillips and Brady Osborne identify and analyze the group of individuals at the center of the global economic system. The study, published by Project Censored, pinpoints 161 directors on the boards of 13 of the world’s most powerful financial institutions, including the top asset management firms and most centralized corporations. This list of firms includes Barclays PLC, BlackRock Inc., Capital Group Companies Inc., FMR Corporation: Fidelity Worldwide Investment, AXA Group, State Street Corporation, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Legal & General Group PLC (LGIMA), Vanguard Group Inc., UBS AG, Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse Group AG, and Allianz SE (owners of PIMCO). This financial core collectively manages nearly $24 trillion and operates as the heart of what sociologists call the Transnational Capitalist Class (TCC).
The authors build on a history of sociological research, from C. Wright Mills’s work on the American Power Elite in his book The Power Elite to more recent theories on a globalized ruling class. Scholars like Leslie Sklair (The Transnational Capitalist Class) and William Robinson (A Theory of Global Capitalism) described the emergence of an international elite whose interests transcend national borders. This concept is further refined by David Rothkopf’s idea of a “superclass” of 6,000-7,000 people who attend events like Davos and set global policy through organizations such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Trade Organization (WTO), G8, and G20. The text argues that Western governments and military alliances, particularly the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), act to protect this class’s interests, using the post-11 “war on terror” to secure the free flow of capital and access to resources globally.
The 161 individuals comprising this financial core are predominantly white (88%), male (84%), and from North America and Europe. They share elite educational backgrounds from universities like Harvard University, Oxford University, and Stanford University, and are deeply interconnected through corporate boards and policy groups like the Council on Foreign Relations and the Business Roundtable. The study asserts that these institutions have become “too big to fail,” allowing them to operate with limited accountability. Examples cited include the lack of prosecutions for large-scale money laundering by banks like HSBC and JPMorgan Chase and systemic price-fixing through the Libor scandal and ISDAfix scandal. Furthermore, these firms influence society beyond finance, with firms like Vanguard Group and BlackRock investing in firearms manufacturer Sturm, Ruger & Co. and financially backing organizations such as Parent Revolution and StudentsFirst to promote the privatization of public education. Ultimately, the study concludes that this small, cohesive group wields immense power to shape a global economic system that prioritizes the protection and growth of their concentrated wealth.