Jan Fichtner, Eelke Heemskerk and Javier Garcia-Bernardo, Postdoctoral Researcher in Political Science/Associate Professor Political Science/ PhD Candidate - University of Amsterdam - Asia Times
Stephan:
Here is the latest and most alarming manifestation of Neo-feudalism. Three corporate entities you may never have even heard of, Blackrock, Vanguard and State Street, in the fast-growing sector of passive funds, now own close to half of publicly listed firms in the US. Here are some facts.
Note that this research was done and reported by non-American researchers.
The Big Three.
Credit: The Conversation
A fundamental change is under way in stock market investing, and the spin-off effects are poised to dramatically impact corporate America. In the past, individuals and large institutions mostly invested in actively managed mutual funds, such as Fidelity, in which fund managers pick stocks with the aim of beating the market.
But since the financial crisis of 2008, investors have shifted to index funds, which replicate established stock indices, such as the S&P 500.
The magnitude of the change is astounding: from 2007 to 2016, actively managed funds have recorded outflows of roughly US$1.2 trillion, while index funds had inflows of over US$1.4 trillion.
In the first quarter of 2017, index funds brought in more than US$200 billion – the highest quarterly value on record.
This shift, arguably the biggest investment swing in history, is due in large part to index funds’ much lower costs.
Actively managed funds analyse the market, and their managers are well paid for their labor. But the vast majority are not able to consistently beat […]
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Leonard Hyman and William Tilles, - Business Insider/Oil Price
Stephan: Another SR prediction being confirmed. Globally, in spite of everything Trump and his administration can do, we are undergoing a massive transition out of the carbon energy age, and this restructuring is coming much faster than anticipated, as I have been writing in SR. How fast? Just consider the first two paragraphs of this report:
"Researchers project that solar power will become cheaper than conventional, fossil fueled electric generating sources by 2020. (The researchers do not say that directly, but their numbers do.)
"But the news gets even worse for incumbent utilities. By 2030, solar-plus-storage could threaten the economic relevance of their distribution grids by making less necessary the connection with the local electric utility."
It is my belief that centralized energy production and the national grid will soon be as the Pony Express.
Rendering of the Kanoya Osaki Solar Hills Solar Power Plant in Japan
Credit: Kyocera
Researchers project that solar power will become cheaper than conventional, fossil fueled electric generating sources by 2020. (The researchers do not say that directly, but their numbers do.)
But the news gets even worse for incumbent utilities. By 2030, solar-plus-storage could threaten the economic relevance of their distribution grids by making less necessary the connection with the local electric utility. (emphasis added)
In short, more efficient solar panels combined with lower cost battery storage will threaten the economic viability of the entire electric utility distribution grid by 2030. Stated another way, those supposedly low risk, high yielding distribution utilities like Con Ed, for example, may at some point in the not-too-distant future become high risk and no yield equities if this thesis plays out.
If consumers can economically produce, store, and swap electrical energy, they will not need the power grid. They can replicate it with other technologies and at lower costs. That would strand utility assets on […]
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Stephan: Until a society changes its worldview from dominionist materialism to a a recognition that all life is interconnected and interdependent it is impossible to prepare properly for climate change. Because of this interlinkage there are always unintended, unanticipated consequences when one acts concerning oneself only with simplistic policies that result in things like the bleaching of coral.
Bleached coral off the coast of northeastern Australia is the result of warming ocean temperatures. Save a dramatic weather event to lower the water temperatures within the next few weeks, most of this coral will die.
Credit: Megan Proctor
When he was six years old, Dean Miller already knew he wanted to be a marine biologist. At that time, growing up in Australia, the world of marine biology seemed both spectacular and limitless, he says.
“I wanted to study the wonders of the Great Barrier Reef, the intricate and complex connections between the thousands of different life-forms that represent the most diverse ecosystem on the planet,” Miller told Truthout.
But in the last two years, this has all changed for him.
To see more stories like this, visit “Planet or Profit?”
“I now look at the reef as an ecosystem that is suffering from our actions and I feel guilty beyond belief that this is happening in my backyard, on our generation’s watch,” he explained. “I no longer dream of the kaleidoscope of life, color […]
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Stephan: This, in my view, is the most coherent geopolitical assessment we have ever had from Donald Trump about how he views the world, and it should deeply alarm you -- it certainly does me.
White House resident Donald Trump took a few moments off from his usual weekend routine of disappearing to one of his golf clubs for a few days to deliver an address to graduates at Jerry Falwell Jr.’s far-right Liberty University. It’s a good time to remind ourselves that Jerry Falwell Jr. is quite possibly the most consistently malevolent mainstream preacher in America today; he’s the supposed Jesus Guy who led the evangelical movement into accepting the serial sexual assaulter and misogynist Trump—a rich boor who conspicuously has never done a speck of Christian or non-Christian good for anybody—as being a good and proper vessel for evangelical voters because … well, that’s a good question now, isn’t it?
It’s partly because Falwell’s version of Christianity doesn’t seem to depend much on doing actual good. It’s partly because Falwell’s version of Christianity is one that flirts with a notion that more crooked preachers blurt out outright; if you’re rich, it means God doesn’t care whether you’re a decent man or not. But it is mostly because Falwell is of the opinion that whether or not you are a good Christian is entirely irrelevant, compared to the existential importance of making sure […]
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Steven Rosenfeld , National Political Reporter - Alternet
Stephan: Trump has always struck me as a Mafioso. His taste runs that way, and that seems to be the way he does business. The American media is lost in the purgatory of tweets and campaign verbal bumper sticker statements by which he dominates this country's media, and keeps it from seeing what is really going on. Other journalists in other countries don't seem to be as susceptible to the toxic fog Trump produces. And this is what they see. It is a nasty little picture.
Credit: YouTube / ZEMBLA-Onderzoeksjournalistiek
Donald Trump’s business partners have included Russian oligarchs and convicted mobsters, which could make the president guilty of criminal racketeering charges.
That’s one of the eyebrow-raising takeaways from a 45-minute Dutch documentary that aired last week, titled The Dubious Friends of Donald Trump, Part 1: The Russians. The first installment of the investigative reporting series, produced by Zembla, does what no American TV network has yet dared to do—take a deep look at the organized crime links and corrupt international business strategies used by Trump and his partners in his properties.
It starts with Trump’s luxury tower in the lower Manhattan neighborhood of Soho, where his partner in building that highrise was Bayrock LLC, whose primary investor was a Russian mining oligarch and another major investor was a convicted Russian mobster named Felix Sater.
“Why did 60 Minutes pass on the Bayrock story in 2016? Why did ABC News’ Brian Ross pass on the Trump Soho [Tower] story in 2015? Why has no major network done any kind of documentary on what the Dutch […]
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