Process
Status Items Output None Questions None Claims None Highlights Done See section below
Highlights
id760497980
The titans are a kind of working sociological category, representing the board of directors of the top ten investment management companies in the world: BlackRock, Vanguard, UBS, Fidelity, State Street, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Amundi in France, Allianz SE in Germany, and Capital Group.
id760498003
I chose ten companies to create a manageable sample size, resulting in 117 people whom I call “titans.” These are the most powerful people in the world — they decide where almost $50 trillion worth of capital is going to be invested.
id760498043
It is more a matter of influence.
id760498034
The titans participate in a number of policy groups, the Atlantic Council being one of the most powerful. At least half of them go to Davos every year, further extending their reach into corridors of power. Ultimately, capitalist governments are structured to protect capital, which is why the wealth of the titans continues to increase.
id760498213
one of their biggest problems is finding sufficient safe investment opportunities. They have more capital than there are secure places to invest, which pushes them into speculative investments.
✏️ I guess my question would be, why the NEED to find investment opportunities? 🔗 View Highlight
id760498201
Their need to grow and achieve returns in the 6, 7, 8 percent range or higher means they constantly need new investment opportunities.
✏️ Why the need for this high of investments, instead of just stable normal ones that don’t go into speculative or negative consequence-related investments? 🔗 View Highlight
id760498594
They’ve embraced the World Economic Forum because it provides a platform to promote the idea of good governance and universal security. But it’s largely propaganda aimed at defending capitalism. The titans recognize the growing inequalities and resulting resistance that top-down capital accumulation can provoke among global populations. So they’re trying to mitigate that. By participating in forums like Davos, they attempt to portray capitalism and their activities as beneficial and equitable
id760498700
They’re vulnerable to mass politics and social movements of any kind: civil rights movements, anti-poverty movements, and urban unrest, even though such unrest can be violently repressed by governments worldwide
id760498705
This vulnerability is one of the reasons Davos meets annually — to accommodate or make changes that can preempt any potential social movement developments that might threaten them.