The 50 Most Wanted

This is taken from http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-10-21/news/30305192_1_barclays-plc-barclays-bank-legal-general-group, in reference to a study done by the New Scientist group, which can be found here:
http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/1107/1107.5728v2.pdf

There really is a secret capital network that runs the world, according to an analysis published in the esteemed New Scientist (via Patrick.net).

The work revealed a core of 1318 companies with interlocking ownerships. Each of the 1318 had ties to two or more other companies, and on average they were connected to 20. What's more, although they represented 20 per cent of global operating revenues, the 1318 appeared to collectively own through their shares the majority of the world's large blue chip and manufacturing firms - the "real" economy - representing a further 60 per cent of global revenues.

When the team further untangled the web of ownership, it found much of it tracked back to a "super-entity" of 147 even more tightly knit companies - all of their ownership was held by other members of the super-entity - that controlled 40 per cent of the total wealth in the network. "In effect, less than 1 per cent of the companies were able to control 40 per cent of the entire network," says Glattfelder. Most were financial institutions. The top 20 included Barclays Bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and The Goldman Sachs Group.

While the existence of a core capitalist network isn't surprising, this is the first time it has been mapped and quantified.

Here is a graphic of the 1318 companies that control (60 percent of) world assets, with the really powerful companies in red.

And here's the top fifty:

1. Barclays plc

2. Capital Group Companies Inc
3. FMR Corporation
4. AXA
5. State Street Corporation
6. JP Morgan Chase & Co
7. Legal & General Group plc
8. Vanguard Group Inc
9. UBS AG
10. Merrill Lynch & Co Inc
11. Wellington Management Co LLP
12. Deutsche Bank AG
13. Franklin Resources Inc
14. Credit Suisse Group
15. Walton Enterprises LLC
16. Bank of New York Mellon Corp
17. Natixis
18. Goldman Sachs Group Inc
19. T Rowe Price Group Inc
20. Legg Mason Inc
21. Morgan Stanley
22. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc
23. Northern Trust Corporation
24. Société Générale
25. Bank of America Corporation
26. Lloyds TSB Group plc
27. Invesco plc
28. Allianz SE 29. TIAA
30. Old Mutual Public Limited Company
31. Aviva plc
32. Schroders plc
33. Dodge & Cox
34. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc*
35. Sun Life Financial Inc
36. Standard Life plc
37. CNCE
38. Nomura Holdings Inc
39. The Depository Trust Company
40. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance
41. ING Groep NV
42. Brandes Investment Partners LP
43. Unicredito Italiano SPA
44. Deposit Insurance Corporation of Japan
45. Vereniging Aegon
46. BNP Paribas
47. Affiliated Managers Group Inc
48. Resona Holdings Inc
49. Capital Group International Inc
50. China Petrochemical Group Company

* Lehman still existed in the 2007 dataset used

The Problem

I can't take it anymore.

Throughout my entire life, I've been taught to respect authority and to play by the rules. For the most part, I've let this way of life serve as my ethical guide. I was raised as a Catholic, but being an inquisitive child, I learned that the church didn't have answers that satisfied my need for a deeper understanding of why things were the way they were. The Catholic church is, as are most religions, a house of cards - and the glue that holds them together is fear. Fear of punishment in the afterlife, or of something similar. Scare tactics work well for most people, and this is why religion is so important in our world. But these scare tactics are very easy to see through for anyone that is willing to ask questions and hear answers that they don't want to hear. Being religious has become a virtue in our society - and ideally this would be a very positive thing - but instead this virtue has been transformed into power by the people that have set forward to ruin the world.

The central banks are to blame. Conspiracy theorists can tell you a lot more about them than I can. They have ideas based on world domination, that are rooted in the 1800's. The endgame is of little concern to me - whether it was architected in the 1800's as a plan to dominate the global currency and establish a single world government, or if it was a short-sighted plan to make themselves rich. In either case, the result is oppression of the masses. They achieve this by enslaving us to debt. It's a brilliant plan, and none have mastered it quite as well as the US. They've used wars, other systems of government, and religious and racial strife to further their position - all of these serving as justification for their implementation of economic control. They've used these struggles also as a justification for the development of their military. The inquisitive mind is at a disadvantage against those who control the central banks, since they do have valid answers to their questions. Their genius is in hiding their true endgame behind a legitimate lesser purpose.

What I can't take anymore, is living in a world that is being treated like a whore by these short-sighted few that seek to establish economic and military control over the world. Anyone that owes any money to a bank is a victim of this crime. For those in under-developed countries, where bank loans are not readily available, they are being forced to sell or give away their natural resources in exchange for minimalistic recompense. Individually, we are powerless against them. Even united in large groups, we are powerless against them. The recent Occupy Wall Street movements that have been taking place around the world have been noticed, but have resulted in little change to date. Most have been disbanded. For those that continue, I'm hopeful that they will affect change - but I'm not optimistic. Their message is right though, and their efforts should be supported.

I will never give any credit to Hitler for anything he did, but he was a brilliant social engineer. For anyone to be able to inspire masses of people to commit the atrocities that he did is truly an accomplishment, and a study in social engineering. It will take this type of effort to bring the people together - not just in the US, but across the globe - to bring an end to the tyranny that most of the world is subject to. The end state of the financial system is near, and unless we can do something to set it straight, conditions will worsen, and the hole that we have to dig ourselves out of will be that much deeper.

We must inspire each other to unite toward a common goal - change.