The 10 Giant Corporations That Have Taken Over Much of Our Economy

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/10-giant-corporations-have-taken-over-much-our-economy



There isn't much diversity in America's economic web of life.

An image that was first posted on Reddit last year, and was recently grabbed by the folks over at PolicyMic, shows just how out-of-control corporate America has become in the years since Ronald Reagan stopped enforcing the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

Right now, there are 10 giant corporations that control, either directly or indirectly, virtually everything we buy.

These corporations are Kraft, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestle, Proctor and Gamble, General Mills, Kellogg's, Mars, Unilever, and Johnson & Johnson.

These 10 corporations in turn own, market, or distribute what people think of as the products of hundreds of other companies.

For example, Proctor and Gamble is best known for its cleaning and personal hygiene products, like Tide detergent, Ivory hand soap and Joy dishwashing liquid.

But the company also owns or markets other products, from IAMS dog food and Pepto-Bismol to Duracell batteries and Metamucil.

[orpupilofnature57]

1. How much did the NSA help them and

how much do they owe US ?

[BelgianMadCow]

2. I was thinking this thread NEEDS this image

and the article has it linked!

On edit: the bank pic is even more chilling:

[Nuclear Unicorn]

6. Any charts showing how much of the GDP moves through their respective coffers annually?

[BelgianMadCow]

10. haven't seen them - but it was reported that 147 companies control 40% of world GDP

and 60% of profits.

See here.

The Top 50 looks very, very financial:

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

[CincyDem]

12. So what's the problem we're trying to fix here ?

I get the issue with the bank concentration and how it's concentrated wealth, restricted access to capital and pretty much f*ed the economy for a generation.

But I look at the top pic and think about getting up in the morning brushing my teeth with Crest, washing my hair with Furctis, pitting up with some Old Spice and grabbing a quick bowl of Quaker Oats for breakfast with a glass of Minute Maid orange juice. I pack up some leftover Kraft Mac'n'Cheese and mix in some Starkist Tuna (yep, I know it's not in the pic but it's my weakness) for lunch. On the way out the door I sneak a mini Nestles Cruch bar from the kids halloween booty and tell my wife I love the look with her new L'Oreal mascara. At lunch, someone brings in some KFC and I grab a Coke to go with it. I know I shouldn't but I grab a handful (small I promise) of M&M's as I pass the receptionist's desk. My calls in the afternoon and asks me to bring home some Ben & Jerry's to celebrate my daughter getting a part in the school play that she really wanted. At dinner, I spill some chocolate ice cream on my shirt. I wipe it up with some Bounty (because the Koch's own Brawny) and I toss the shirt in the wash with some Tide and Snuggle. I fall asleep wondering if we have any Eggo's for breakfast.

I don't know - to me it doesn't sound like that's the same as the cartel that "destroyed the world economy".

Can someone put it in perspective.

[BelgianMadCow]

13. Well, who do you think the 600 corporate lobbyists involved in the TPP represent?

If not these mega-corps?

I do agree with you that, say, the banking cartel, Big Pharma, Big Oil and the MIC are bigger problems. Hence my edit to include the second picture.

Personally, I find the graph of concentration insightful because it helps dispell the illusion of choice when one walks down the isle.

What we're trying to "solve" here is that power corrupts, and such concentrated power will therefore corrupt very strongly.

[progressoid]

16. Google "competition"

https://www.google.com/search?q=why+competition+is+good+for+the+economy&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org

[Kermitt Gribble]

24. This is why we have "Too Big to Fail"

I would also guess that all of these products concentrated in only a handful of corporations all but eliminates competition, which leads to higher prices.

[rurallib]

17. strong resemblence between that bank chart and a tournament

except one is for games and one is real life.
Can you say "monopoly?"

[Nuclear Unicorn]

3. I could have sworn we used to have anti-trust laws.

[BelgianMadCow]

4. doubleplusungood

thoughtcrime alert!

[Nuclear Unicorn]

5. No worries.

We have "prosecutorial discretion."

[BelgianMadCow]

8. Phew. I was afraid you were turning into an "adversary"

As in, adversary.

It should hardly be surprising that our intelligence agencies seek ways to counteract our adversaries’ use of encryption,” the response states.

However, the document clearly refers to the general consumer as an adversary.

“These design changes make the systems in question exploitable through Sigint [signals intelligence] collection […] with foreknowledge of the modification,” the document states. “To the consumer and other adversaries, however, the systems’ security remains intact.”

[liberal N proud]

7. There it is again - our problems of today are rooted in the Reagan era policies

"When Ronald Reagan became president, the Sherman Anti-Trust Act became a thing of the past. " referring to the Sherman Act which prevented such bullshit.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

11. Reagan left office in 1989

That was 24 years ago. Since then we've have 4 years of Bush, 8 years of Clinton, 8 years of other Bush and 5/8 years of Obama. Any subsequent president can pre-empt a predecessor's policies and nowhere have I heard of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act being repealed by Congress.

Blame-shifting has an expiration date.

[liberal N proud]

18. Clinton and Bush are both a result of the Reagan years.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

20. Clinton was despised by the Reaganites.

[cantbeserious]

22. We Have A Winner

eom

[WinkyDink]

9. "The 10 Giant Corporations That Have Taken Over Much Of Our Government." FIXED.

[Thucydides]

14. Add to the list the owners of the MSM, paints a very scary picture....

Massive corporations dominate the U.S. media landscape. Through a history of mergers and acquisitions, these companies have concentrated their control over what we see, hear and read. In many cases, these companies are vertically integrated, controlling everything from initial production to final distribution. In the interactive charts below we reveal who owns what.

http://www.freepress.net/ownership/chart

[cantbeserious]

15. The Oligarchs And Corporations Own And Control The Politicians That Own And Control Us

eom

[zeemike]

19. Well it is not surprise if you do the math.

Something that grows by a percentage every year unchecked will eventually devour it all...it is not a question of whether but when.

[FarCenter]

21. Conagra missed the cut?

[Orsino]

23. Locking.

Mr. Bartholomew regretfully announces the OP's retirement, and thanks him for his years of devotion to The Game.

[bluestate10]

25. And, you and I and pretty much everyone else on DU help them.

There are small companies around that make environmentally sensitive, healthy products. But they largely get fucking ignored. The prices for their products are high because most people would rather buy chocolates from Mars or Nestle, or soda pop from Coca-Cola or Pepsi, or soap from Proctor and Gamble, or cereal from Kellogg's. This is no strike at the OP in particular because I see this same pattern from other DU members, but when I see a thread start with a litany of ills then gives the implicit implication that we are powerless to reign in those ills, I get a slow boil that starts in my gut and consumes me with barely concealed rage. We can control a large part of who we buy stuff from if we really give a fuck and are willing to go farther than just complain.