Videos

AI summary for those like me that prefer to read over watch videos:

• BlackRock is a massive asset management firm that manages over $10.6 trillion in assets, more than half the GDP of the United States.
• BlackRock, along with other large asset managers like Vanguard and State Street, are the subject of many online conspiracy theories about their level of control and influence over the global economy.
• Asset managers like BlackRock make money by providing index funds and passive investment products, which allow them to own small stakes in a vast number of companies.
• This "universal ownership" model gives BlackRock and other large asset managers significant voting power and influence over the companies they invest in, even though they don't directly control the day-to-day operations.
• There are concerns that this concentration of ownership and voting power allows asset managers to prioritize shareholder returns over other stakeholders like workers and consumers.
• Asset managers have significant political influence, with many former government officials and regulators joining their ranks, creating a "revolving door" between the public and private sectors.
• BlackRock and other asset managers have successfully lobbied against increased regulatory oversight, arguing that they are "passive investors" despite their outsized influence.
• The ownership structure of the financial sector is highly interconnected, with the largest asset managers owning stakes in each other, creating a self-reinforcing loop.
• While BlackRock may not "own everything," its universal ownership model gives it a significant degree of control and influence over the global economy.
• There are calls for reforms to address the concentration of power and influence held by large asset managers like BlackRock, such as increased regulation and a rebalancing of shareholder and stakeholder interests.

I know the video isn't about that kind of conspiracy, but I find these similarities to esoteric lore fascinating:

Mercator said there is a Black Rock (rupes nigra) at the North Pole that is responsible for compasses pointing north, surrounded by 4 islands and with the water draining into the Earth like a funnel.

Also in the alchemical process of Magnum Opus or Great Work to create the Philosopher's Stone, black rock could be the end product of nigredo. Many alchemists believed that as a first step in the pathway to the philosopher's stone, all alchemical ingredients had to be cleansed and cooked extensively to a uniform black matter. This is also commonly represented by sol niger, the black sun.

That is commonly translated into political thought by homogenizing the whole world. There's the Nazi, Skull&Bones interpetation, burn the whole world until one Volk is left and then there's the peaceful panhumanist interpretation.

I wouldn't be surprised if the name was actually chosen to represent the Nazi black sun, you know how elitists be.

So what do we do? Stop investing in ETFs? Buy shares directly on the stock market?