The top shareholder, at the moment, in Monsanto is The Vanguard Group, which is number two on the list of top Facebook shareholders. FMR, LLC, is the number one Facebook shareholder. For Monsanto, it’s number two. The State Street Corporation is the number three shareholder for both Facebook and Monsanto. BlackRock Institutional Trust Company is Monsanto’s number five shareholder, and ranks at number four for Facebook. The other top dozen shareholders of both Monsanto and Facebook are Jennison Associates, Sands Capital Management, and the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund. Yes, these are all investment funds, and they spread their enormous money around. They own shares of many, many publicly traded companies. But the comparison of Monsanto and Facebook illustrates how, at the top of the food chain, there is connected wealth. These investment funds can, if they choose to, intercede in companies’ proxy votes to alter company policy. And of course, in case a company decides to take a controversial stance on a political issue, or introduce a new product that would disrupt the foundations of the economic status quo, the investment funds can exert punishment: Suddenly selling off millions of shares and avoiding the company like poison would have a severely negative effect. As long as these companies proceed with business as usual, there’s really nothing to notice. The system hums in its normal way. And that’s the whole point. Don’t rock the boat. Facebook operating as a consumer self-spying machine, laying out people’s personal details? Monsanto taking over the food supply with its dangerous and toxic GMO-pesticide technology? No problem. And don’t forget that Facebook deleted the March Against Monsanto’s main event at Monsanto headquarters back in August, now we see why.
Posted on: Thu, 01 May 2014 04:41:03 +0000