Featured above are Mortimer J. Buckley (Vangaurd CEO), Ron O’Hanley (State Street CEO), and Larry Fink (BlackRock CEO). Combined, these three men have the most shares in 88 percent of the S&P 500 firms.

Abraham Lincoln, one of the four faces present on the colossal Mount Rushmore National Memorial said, “I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country.”

     “Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people, until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the republic destroyed.” This foreshadowing was not only valid in the 1860’s but is also true of modern day society.

     Many people would say that money is power and the more money one has, the more power that person or group has. Three examples of this idea stand in the formation of BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street. If you don’t know what these names are, keep reading. 

     Columbia Law School states, “The Big Three—BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street—collectively constitute the largest shareholder in nearly 90% of S&P 500 firms.” According to Innovation & Tech Today, BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager with ten trillion dollars currently in its portfolio. Now, the world only has about 40 trillion dollars in circulation. This means that this singular corporation you’ve never heard of owns a quarter of the entire planet’s money. See why I told you to keep reading?

     That’s more than the gross domestic product (GDP) of every single country outside of the United States and China. The company attains this income by having huge equity holdings in information technology, healthcare, consumer discretionary, communications, finance, consumer staples, and energy. These sectors are vital to the American economy, yet they are in the palm of one man’s hands, Larry Fink.

     Is the CEO of the largest company ever purposely destroying the economy? No. But, is this corporation thriving directly through the wealth transfer from workers to shareholders? Yes. Still, this is just BlackRock. With all three of these companies combined, there is no doubt that they own too much of the global economy. Vanguard manages eight trillion dollars and State Street has four trillion. This is a modern-day oligopoly and it’s scary.

     America has seen the effects of this level of market domination with steel manufacturing, oil, and railroads. The only question is will the Big Three prove themselves to be robber barons or captains of industry?