SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #512: MICHAEL M
56 minutes ago
Thursday, 20 October 2011
Thirteen Observations made by Lemony Snicket while watching Occupy Wall Street from a Discreet Distance
2. “Fortune” is a word for having a lot of money and for having a lot of luck, but that does not mean the word has two definitions.
3. Money is like a child—rarely unaccompanied. When it disappears, look to those who were supposed to be keeping an eye on it while you were at the grocery store. You might also look for someone who has a lot of extra children sitting around, with long, suspicious explanations for how they got there.
4. People who say money doesn’t matter are like people who say cake doesn’t matter—it’s probably because they’ve already had a few slices.
5. There may not be a reason to share your cake. It is, after all, yours. You probably baked it yourself, in an oven of your own construction with ingredients you harvested yourself. It may be possible to keep your entire cake while explaining to any nearby hungry people just how reasonable you are.
6. Nobody wants to fall into a safety net, because it means the structure in which they’ve been living is in a state of collapse and they have no choice but to tumble downwards. However, it beats the alternative.
7. Someone feeling wronged is like someone feeling thirsty. Don’t tell them they aren’t. Sit with them and have a drink.
8. Don’t ask yourself if something is fair. Ask someone else—a stranger in the street, for example.
9. People gathering in the streets feeling wronged tend to be loud, as it is difficult to make oneself heard on the other side of an impressive edifice.
10. It is not always the job of people shouting outside impressive buildings to solve problems. It is often the job of the people inside, who have paper, pens, desks, and an impressive view.
11. Historically, a story about people inside impressive buildings ignoring or even taunting people standing outside shouting at them turns out to be a story with an unhappy ending.
12. If you have a large crowd shouting outside your building, there might not be room for a safety net if you’re the one tumbling down when it collapses.
13. 99 percent is a very large percentage. For instance, easily 99 percent of people want a roof over their heads, food on their tables, and the occasional slice of cake for dessert. Surely an arrangement can be made with that niggling 1 percent who disagree.
@'Occupy Writers'
Famous Writers Including Salman Rushdie And Neil Gaiman Sign On To Support Occupy Wall Street
William S. Burroughs: Guns & Painting
Via
#OccupyMelbourne (Livestream)
Inspector Bernie Jackson of the Melbourne East police station this afternoon met with Occupy Melbourne protestors today to discuss a potential eviction scenario.
Jackson stressed that Victoria Police does not have the authority on its own to prosecute the eviction, and instead will wait for Melbourne City Council’s instructions on how to proceed.
Inspector Jackson said that once an eviction notice had been served, a “reasonable time” would be given for protestors to voluntarily vacate City Square. “Reasonable time will be given in hours, as in a number of hours,” said Jackson. He qualified: “it’s not going to be in the middle of the night.”
Inspector Jackson further discussed Victoria Police’s likely course of action should an eviction order be issued. When the police arrive on site, protestors will be again asked to leave voluntarily. Anyone who refuses to leave will be forcibly removed from City Square by police officers.
Inspector Jackson told the crowd that he was satisfied with the current state of relations between police and the Occupy Melbourne protestors.
Inspector Jackson’s statement will be discussed at the nightly General Assembly, to be held at 6pm this evening on the north side of City Square.
Jackson was challenged by a number of vocal members of the crowd, including Indigenous activist Robbie Thorpe.
Mr Thorpe asked Jackson: “If the by-laws [relating to the Summary Offences Act’s powers for eviction] relate to the Aboriginal people and if so, how?”
Inspector Jackson responded that the police force was required to follow the directions of the Melbourne City Council with regard to the eviction of protestors.
Mr Thorpe later told Occupy Melbourne’s media liaison team that any eviction notice served on the protestors is likely to be immediately challenged in the courts.
Via
Jackson stressed that Victoria Police does not have the authority on its own to prosecute the eviction, and instead will wait for Melbourne City Council’s instructions on how to proceed.
Inspector Jackson said that once an eviction notice had been served, a “reasonable time” would be given for protestors to voluntarily vacate City Square. “Reasonable time will be given in hours, as in a number of hours,” said Jackson. He qualified: “it’s not going to be in the middle of the night.”
Inspector Jackson further discussed Victoria Police’s likely course of action should an eviction order be issued. When the police arrive on site, protestors will be again asked to leave voluntarily. Anyone who refuses to leave will be forcibly removed from City Square by police officers.
Inspector Jackson told the crowd that he was satisfied with the current state of relations between police and the Occupy Melbourne protestors.
Inspector Jackson’s statement will be discussed at the nightly General Assembly, to be held at 6pm this evening on the north side of City Square.
Jackson was challenged by a number of vocal members of the crowd, including Indigenous activist Robbie Thorpe.
Mr Thorpe asked Jackson: “If the by-laws [relating to the Summary Offences Act’s powers for eviction] relate to the Aboriginal people and if so, how?”
Inspector Jackson responded that the police force was required to follow the directions of the Melbourne City Council with regard to the eviction of protestors.
Mr Thorpe later told Occupy Melbourne’s media liaison team that any eviction notice served on the protestors is likely to be immediately challenged in the courts.
Via
GreatDismal William Gibson
How to get an umlaut in Final Draft 8? Don't guess. Only if you actually know how, okay?
Chris Hedges: 'This one could take them all down' (#OccupyWallStreet)
Chris Hedges: "What happens is in all of these movements ... the foot soldiers of the elite -- the blue uniformed police, the mechanisms of control -- finally don't want to impede the movement and at that point the power elite is left defenseless ... the only thing I can say having been in the middle of similar movements is that this one is real, and this one could take them all down ... I can guarantee you that huge segments of those blue uniformed police sympathize with everything that you're doing." -- Pulitzer Prize winner Chris Hedges brings his 20 years of experience as a war correspondent, having covered movements and revolutions throughout the the world, to the discussion.
Tracing the Middle East weapons flow
Earlier this year, as mass popular uprisings spread through the Middle East and audiences across the world sat transfixed by images of unarmed citizens confronting iron-fisted security forces in the streets of Arab capitals, powerful governments from Russia to the United States were forced to begin accounting for the weapons they had for decades sold to the very rulers they now found themselves abandoning.
In Egypt and Bahrain, protesters held up tear gas canisters stamped "Made in USA", giving longstanding US support for autocratic Arab regimes a painful physical manifestation.
But the United States has not been the only culprit. Egyptian riot police fired shotgun shells made in Italy, and Libyan special forces wielded Belgian assault rifles. Bulgaria has led weapons sales to Yemen, and Russia likely supplies a huge amount of Syria's armoury.
According to a report released on Wednesday by London-based human rights organisation Amnesty International, in the five years preceding the Arab Spring, a host of at least 20 governments - including Italy, the United Kingdom, France, Serbia, Switzerland and South Korea - sold more than $2.4 billion worth of small arms, tear gas, armoured vehicles and other security equipment to the the five countries that have faced - and violently combated - popular uprisings: Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Syria, and Yemen.
After security forces turned on protesters with lethal force, some governments, such as the United Kingdom, France and Germany, suspended certain arms sales. Britain announced in February that it would revoke more than 50 arms licenses, including for tear gas and ammunition, to Bahrain and Libya. In Syria's case, many governments had not sold weapons to the government of Bashar al-Assad for years.
But for the thousands of people who have died since January, such measures came too late, and many countries seem ready to return to business as usual. The United States is currently considering selling Bahrain $53 million of Humvees, bunker-busting TOW missiles and other items, the first such sale to the Gulf island monarchy since protests erupted and were violently repressed earlier this year. China has said it will look into whether companies violated state policy when they negotiated an arms deal with Muammar Gaddafi’s regime during the uprising in Libya, but neither Beijing nor the government in Russia publishes data on its weapons sales, making accountability difficult for two of the world's biggest arms suppliers (10 per cent of Russia's arms sales go to Syria, according to Amnesty)...
In Egypt and Bahrain, protesters held up tear gas canisters stamped "Made in USA", giving longstanding US support for autocratic Arab regimes a painful physical manifestation.
But the United States has not been the only culprit. Egyptian riot police fired shotgun shells made in Italy, and Libyan special forces wielded Belgian assault rifles. Bulgaria has led weapons sales to Yemen, and Russia likely supplies a huge amount of Syria's armoury.
According to a report released on Wednesday by London-based human rights organisation Amnesty International, in the five years preceding the Arab Spring, a host of at least 20 governments - including Italy, the United Kingdom, France, Serbia, Switzerland and South Korea - sold more than $2.4 billion worth of small arms, tear gas, armoured vehicles and other security equipment to the the five countries that have faced - and violently combated - popular uprisings: Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Syria, and Yemen.
After security forces turned on protesters with lethal force, some governments, such as the United Kingdom, France and Germany, suspended certain arms sales. Britain announced in February that it would revoke more than 50 arms licenses, including for tear gas and ammunition, to Bahrain and Libya. In Syria's case, many governments had not sold weapons to the government of Bashar al-Assad for years.
But for the thousands of people who have died since January, such measures came too late, and many countries seem ready to return to business as usual. The United States is currently considering selling Bahrain $53 million of Humvees, bunker-busting TOW missiles and other items, the first such sale to the Gulf island monarchy since protests erupted and were violently repressed earlier this year. China has said it will look into whether companies violated state policy when they negotiated an arms deal with Muammar Gaddafi’s regime during the uprising in Libya, but neither Beijing nor the government in Russia publishes data on its weapons sales, making accountability difficult for two of the world's biggest arms suppliers (10 per cent of Russia's arms sales go to Syria, according to Amnesty)...
All You Need To Know About The Hipster Cop
Robert Stolarik for The New York Times Detective Rick Lee advised demonstrators how to avoid arrest and get along with other officers on Monday at Zuccotti Park.
There are many unknowns about the Occupy Wall Street protest in downtown Manhattan: Where is the next march? Who are its leaders? What do they really want? When will it end? But an even bigger question, perhaps, has emerged: Who is the Hipster Cop?The questions keep popping up about the nattily dressed plainclothes officer who has become a fixture at the protest camp at Zuccotti Park.
What are his name, rank and precinct? And does he live in Williamsburg, or Bushwick? Is he really pressing protesters for planning secrets? And does he wear skinny jeans off-duty? Is he into fixed-gear bikes and the Fleet Foxes?
He has become an instant local celebrity and a fascination of online coverage. Blogs anointed him the “hipster cop’’ and mused about his identity. Twitter users posted snapshots of him. Online sleuths matched the snapshots to those of a community affairs detective in the First Precinct named Rick Lee.
Now it can be told: the officer is indeed Detective Lee, who confessed when approached by a reporter at the park.
“That’s what they call me,” he said with a slightly exasperated sigh.
“I will reveal that I wear skinny jeans off-duty,” he said, adding that the department frowns upon wearing them on-duty.
Detective Lee is 45 but looks much younger. He is slim, with a shaggy hairstyle, cool-nerd eyeglasses and an ironic smile. His wardrobe usually includes cardigan sweaters, glasses and skinny ties to go along with his skinny trousers.
Gawker and Gothamist, among other Web sites, have chronicled his omnipresence at Occupy Wall Street protests, whether at Zuccotti Park, where he can often be seen engaging with protesters, or at boisterous marches around town.
In an interview on Monday, Detective Lee revealed that he favors organic food and eschews coffee and doughnuts. His taste in music runs to Radiohead and the Killers.
He was wearing snug wool slacks, a print tie and a pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses.
“I’m into fashion, always have been,” he said, adding that his suits are hand-tailored by a friend who works for Ralph Lauren.
Certainly Detective Lee’s natty style and cool demeanor stand out against the protesters in sleep-rumpled clothes, the blue-uniformed police officers around the park’s perimeter and the daytime office crowd passing by in business attire.
He seemed amused at his emergence as one of the few recognizable figures in the protest story.
“I think it’s funny,” said Detective Lee, who lives on Staten Island. “I’m not a blog guy, so I haven’t really seen a lot of the hipster mentions.”
Apart from his wardrobe, Detective Lee has played a serious role at Zuccotti Park since protesters started camping there a month ago. He has been one of the department’s main liaisons with the protesters. He conveys departmental and community concerns and tries to get information about the protesters’ plans.
He has been working overtime, seven days a week. Detective Lee incurred the wrath of protesters early on when they read reports that he had said at a community meeting that protesters were technically trespassing and could be evicted by the park’s owner. Some protesters cautioned others that as a police official he was still the enemy.
One writer on a blog called The Sparrow Project said that it was important to remember that “Hipster Cop is part of the process of intimidation, ridicule and violence being levied against us.”
Jamie Kilstein, a comedian, posted a Twitter message defending the detective: “Guys! Stop making fun of #hipstercop! He’s trying to find himself.”
Protesters stopped to speak to Detective Lee as he walked through the encampment on Monday.
Detective Lee told a small group that his role was to try to keep a dialogue open so that the Police Department could “protect everybody’s rights,” and to try to keep things safe both in the park and at demonstrations.
“It’s nothing personal – we just want you to stay safe,” he said.
He spoke with one protester and asked why the protester would not speak to him when they crossed paths at a rally in Times Square last Saturday.
“It makes me a little nervous sometimes that you guys know me so well,” the protester replied.
One woman was angry that protesters were talking to Detective Lee. “If he was a white-shirt, you wouldn’t be talking to him,’’ she said, referring to higher-ranking officers who wear white shirts. One of those officers became an unwitting star when amateur videos showed him shooting pepper spray at protesters who were contained behind an orange police netting.
“Not everybody likes us,” Detective Lee said to the group. One protester brought up pay inequity, and Detective Lee replied, “Yes, 39 percent of my paycheck is taken out in taxes, so we have a lot in common.”
One protester, Brendan Blood, 19 of Scranton, Pa., told Detective Lee that he had been arrested four times during demonstrations.
Detective Lee told him to follow police orders to avoid arrest.
Another protester, Mike Leonard, 21, of Sayreville, N.J., stopped to chat with the detective about a friend of Mr. Leonard’s who wore the same sunglasses as the officer.
“He’s got a heart,” Mr. Leonard said of Detective Lee.
Detective Lee said he worked as a carpenter after high school and had shoulder-length hair. At the urging of his father, a retired New York firefighter, he joined the Police Department at age 25. He is now four months away from being eligible to retire.
He looked out over Zuccotti Park from a familiar spot on the perimeter and said, “Maybe I’ll grow my hair long again and join these guys.”
Corey Kilgannon @'NY Times'
Henry Rollins - Occupants (w/ Thurston Moore)
Henry Rollins, author of "Occupants' (Chicago Review Press), discusses the book with Thurston Moore at McNally Jackson NYC on Oct 14 2011.
http://henryrollins.com/
(Thanx Joly!)
http://henryrollins.com/
(Thanx Joly!)
Naomi Wolf: how I was arrested at Occupy Wall Street
Last night I was arrested in my home town, outside an event to which I had been invited, for standing lawfully on the sidewalk in an evening gown.
Let me explain; my partner and I were attending an event for the Huffington Post, for which I often write: Game Changers 2011, in a venue space on Hudson Street. As we entered the space, we saw that about 200 Occupy Wall Street protesters were peacefully assembled and were chanting. They wanted to address Governor Andrew Cuomo, who was going to be arriving at the event. They were using a technique that has become known as "the human mic" – by which the crowd laboriously repeats every word the speaker says – since they had been told that using real megaphones was illegal.
In my book Give Me Liberty, a blueprint for how to open up a closing civil society, I have a chapter on permits – which is a crucial subject to understand for anyone involved in protest in the US. In 70s America, protest used to be very effective, but in subsequent decades municipalities have sneakily created a web of "overpermiticisation" – requirements that were designed to stifle freedom of assembly and the right to petition government for redress of grievances, both of which are part of our first amendment. One of these made-up permit requirements, which are not transparent or accountable, is the megaphone restriction.
So I informed the group on Hudson Street that they had a first amendment right to use a megaphone and that the National Lawyers' Guild should appeal the issue if they got arrested. And I repeated the words of the first amendment, which the crowd repeated.
Then my partner suggested that I ask the group for their list of demands. Since we would be inside, we thought it would be helpful to take their list into the event and if I had a chance to talk with the governor I could pass the list on. That is how a democracy works, right? The people have the right to address their representatives.
We went inside, chatted with our friends, but needed to leave before the governor had arrived. I decided I would present their list to his office in the morning and write about the response. On our exit, I saw that the protesters had been cordoned off by a now-massive phalanx of NYPD cops and pinned against the far side of the street – far away from the event they sought to address.
I went up and asked them why. They replied that they had been informed that the Huffington Post event had a permit that forbade them to use the sidewalk. I knew from my investigative reporting on NYC permits that this was impossible: a private entity cannot lease the public sidewalks; even film crews must allow pedestrian traffic. I asked the police for clarification – no response.
I went over to the sidewalk at issue and identified myself as a NYC citizen and a reporter, and asked to see the permit in question or to locate the source on the police or event side that claimed it forbade citizen access to a public sidewalk. Finally a tall man, who seemed to be with the event, confessed that while it did have a permit, the permit did allow for protest so long as we did not block pedestrian passage.
I thanked him, returned to the protesters, and said: "The permit allows us to walk on the other side of the street if we don't block access. I am now going to walk on the public sidewalk and not block it. It is legal to do so. Please join me if you wish." My partner and I then returned to the event-side sidewalk and began to walk peacefully arm in arm, while about 30 or 40 people walked with us in single file, not blocking access.
Then a phalanx of perhaps 40 white-shirted senior offices descended out of seemingly nowhere and, with a megaphone (which was supposedly illegal for citizens to use), one said: "You are unlawfully creating a disruption. You are ordered to disperse." I approached him peacefully, slowly, gently and respectfully and said: "I am confused. I was told that the permit in question allows us to walk if we don't block pedestrian access and as you see we are complying with the permit."
He gave me a look of pure hate. "Are you going to back down?" he shouted. I stood, immobilised, for a moment. "Are you getting out of my way?" I did not even make a conscious decision not to "fall back" – I simply couldn't even will myself to do so, because I knew that he was not giving a lawful order and that if I stepped aside it would be not because of the law, which I was following, but as a capitulation to sheer force. In that moment's hesitation, he said, "OK," gestured, and my partner and I were surrounded by about 20 officers who pulled our hands behind our backs and cuffed us with plastic handcuffs.
We were taken in a van to the seventh precinct – the scary part about that is that the protesters and lawyers marched to the first precinct, which handles Hudson Street, but in the van the police got the message to avoid them by rerouting me. I understood later that the protesters were lied to about our whereabouts, which seemed to me to be a trickle-down of the Bush-era detention practice of unaccountable detentions.
The officers who had us in custody were very courteous, and several expressed sympathy for the movements' aims. Nonetheless, my partner and I had our possessions taken from us, our ID copied, and we were placed in separate cells for about half an hour. It was clear that by then the police knew there was scrutiny of this arrest so they handled us with great courtesy, but my phone was taken and for half an hour I was in a faeces- or blood-smeared cell, thinking at that moment the only thing that separates civil societies from barbaric states is the rule of law – that finds the prisoner, and holds the arresting officers and courts accountable.
Another scary outcome I discovered is that, when the protesters marched to the first precinct, the whole of Erickson Street was cordoned off – "frozen" they were told, "by Homeland Security". Obviously if DHS now has powers to simply take over a New York City street because of an arrest for peaceable conduct by a middle-aged writer in an evening gown, we have entered a stage of the closing of America, which is a serious departure from our days as a free republic in which municipalities are governed by police forces.
The police are now telling my supporters that the permit in question gave the event managers "control of the sidewalks". I have asked to see the permit but still haven't been provided with it – if such a category now exists, I have never heard of it; that, too, is a serious blow to an open civil society. What did I take away? Just that, unfortunately, my partner and I became exhibit A in a process that I have been warning Americans about since 2007: first they come for the "other" – the "terrorist", the brown person, the Muslim, the outsider; then they come for you – while you are standing on a sidewalk in evening dress, obeying the law.
@'The Guardian'
Funkystepz' FADER Mix
Tracklist:
Funkystepz Feat Lily Mckenzie – Circles
Funkystepz – Transformer
DR Gonzo – Bust em up
Roska – Jackpot
Six D – Best Damn Night (Funkystepz Mix)
Funkystepz – Dirty Dutch
Canblaster – Clockwork
Friendly Fires – Hawaiian Air (Seiji Remix)
Funkystepz – Trouble
Funkystepz – XTC
T Williams Feat Terri Walker – Heartbeat (Mosca Remix) ****
Champion – Lighter
Funkystepz – Class A
Scratcha – Flute
Funkystepz – Anger
Funkystepz – Royal Rumble
Funkystepz – Bruk Out
Encore – The One (Champion Mix)
Roska – Roskallion
Funkystepz – Fizzy
Funkystepz – Jumanji
Crazy Cousinz Feat Omarion – Arch Your Back
Funkystepz – Fuller
Champion – 1994
Funkystepz – Warrior
Funkystepz Feat Lily Mckenzie – For U
Funkystepz – Tokyo Drift
Funkystepz Feat Rhian – Our Love
Duchess Feat Scorcher – All The Boyz (Wookie Remix)
Roska – Do You Believe (Ma1 Remix)
Favorite Flava – Heaven (Funkystepz Mix)
Funkystepz – You Got it
Roska Feat Jamie George – Wonderful day (Scratcha Soule Power Mix)
Funkystepz – Underground
Scrufizzer – Fizzy Flow
Funkystepz Feat Lily Mckenzie – Circles
Funkystepz – Transformer
DR Gonzo – Bust em up
Roska – Jackpot
Six D – Best Damn Night (Funkystepz Mix)
Funkystepz – Dirty Dutch
Canblaster – Clockwork
Friendly Fires – Hawaiian Air (Seiji Remix)
Funkystepz – Trouble
Funkystepz – XTC
T Williams Feat Terri Walker – Heartbeat (Mosca Remix) ****
Champion – Lighter
Funkystepz – Class A
Scratcha – Flute
Funkystepz – Anger
Funkystepz – Royal Rumble
Funkystepz – Bruk Out
Encore – The One (Champion Mix)
Roska – Roskallion
Funkystepz – Fizzy
Funkystepz – Jumanji
Crazy Cousinz Feat Omarion – Arch Your Back
Funkystepz – Fuller
Champion – 1994
Funkystepz – Warrior
Funkystepz Feat Lily Mckenzie – For U
Funkystepz – Tokyo Drift
Funkystepz Feat Rhian – Our Love
Duchess Feat Scorcher – All The Boyz (Wookie Remix)
Roska – Do You Believe (Ma1 Remix)
Favorite Flava – Heaven (Funkystepz Mix)
Funkystepz – You Got it
Roska Feat Jamie George – Wonderful day (Scratcha Soule Power Mix)
Funkystepz – Underground
Scrufizzer – Fizzy Flow
Revealed – the capitalist network that runs the world
The 1318 transnational corporations that form the core of the economy. Superconnected companies are red, very connected companies are yellow. The size of the dot represents revenue (Image: PLoS One)
As protests against financial power sweep the world this week, science may have confirmed the protesters' worst fears. An analysis of the relationships between 43,000 transnational corporations has identified a relatively small group of companies, mainly banks, with disproportionate power over the global economy.
The study's assumptions have attracted some criticism, but complex systems analysts contacted by New Scientist say it is a unique effort to untangle control in the global economy. Pushing the analysis further, they say, could help to identify ways of making global capitalism more stable.
The idea that a few bankers control a large chunk of the global economy might not seem like news to New York's Occupy Wall Street movement and protesters elsewhere. But the study, by a trio of complex systems theorists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, is the first to go beyond ideology to empirically identify such a network of power. It combines the mathematics long used to model natural systems with comprehensive corporate data to map ownership among the world's transnational corporations (TNCs).
"Reality is so complex, we must move away from dogma, whether it's conspiracy theories or free-market," says James Glattfelder. "Our analysis is reality-based."
Previous studies have found that a few TNCs own large chunks of the world's economy, but they included only a limited number of companies and omitted indirect ownerships, so could not say how this affected the global economy - whether it made it more or less stable, for instance.
The Zurich team can. From Orbis 2007, a database listing 37 million companies and investors worldwide, they pulled out all 43,060 TNCs and the share ownerships linking them. Then they constructed a model of which companies controlled others through shareholding networks, coupled with each company's operating revenues, to map the structure of economic power.
The work, to be published in PloS One, revealed a core of 1318 companies with interlocking ownerships (see image). Each of the 1318 had ties to two or more other companies, and on average they were connected to 20. What's more, although they represented 20 per cent of global operating revenues, the 1318 appeared to collectively own through their shares the majority of the world's large blue chip and manufacturing firms - the "real" economy - representing a further 60 per cent of global revenues.
When the team further untangled the web of ownership, it found much of it tracked back to a "super-entity" of 147 even more tightly knit companies - all of their ownership was held by other members of the super-entity - that controlled 40 per cent of the total wealth in the network. "In effect, less than 1 per cent of the companies were able to control 40 per cent of the entire network," says Glattfelder. Most were financial institutions. The top 20 included Barclays Bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and The Goldman Sachs Group.
John Driffill of the University of London, a macroeconomics expert, says the value of the analysis is not just to see if a small number of people controls the global economy, but rather its insights into economic stability.
Concentration of power is not good or bad in itself, says the Zurich team, but the core's tight interconnections could be. As the world learned in 2008, such networks are unstable. "If one [company] suffers distress," says Glattfelder, "this propagates."
"It's disconcerting to see how connected things really are," agrees George Sugihara of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, a complex systems expert who has advised Deutsche Bank.
Yaneer Bar-Yam, head of the New England Complex Systems Institute (NECSI), warns that the analysis assumes ownership equates to control, which is not always true. Most company shares are held by fund managers who may or may not control what the companies they part-own actually do. The impact of this on the system's behaviour, he says, requires more analysis...
Continue reading
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
