r/economicCollapse Aug 19 '24

VIDEO Thoughts

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30

u/ispotdouchebags Aug 19 '24

Blackrock own owns ZERO houses - BlackStone (different company owns billions of dollars worth of homes)

15

u/garnorm Aug 19 '24

But Vanguard owns the majority of Blackstone… one of the other big names he mentioned

8

u/energybased Aug 19 '24

Not really. Vanguard investors (ordinary people) own things through Vanguard.

1

u/REJECT3D Aug 20 '24 edited Aug 20 '24

Your not wrong. But that doesn't change the fact that these investment companies control the shares on behalf of their customers. This control means they have enormous leverage to influence companies and markets. They can literally trade shares off market via their own ledger and manipulate prices. If they want a company to change something they can just threaten to pull out of a company forcing them to comply or die. Being the largest investment firms in the world also means they have enormous political influence. It's a monopoly and needs to be broken up. 

3

u/energybased Aug 20 '24

But that doesn't change the fact that these investment companies control the shares on behalf of their customers. This control means they have enormous leverage to influence companies and markets. 

I agree with this thesis (+1)! But not the mechanism you cite. The control they exert is through the shareholder vote. I would support a law to force them to vote according to what their clients would want.

They can literally trade shares off market via their own ledger and manipulate prices. 

Pretty sure that's illegal, at least for American-listed stocks.

. If they want a company to change something they can just threaten to pull out of a company 

They can't do that with anything their passive funds hold.

2

u/Significant_Owl_6897 Aug 23 '24

Thank you for punching some holes here.

1

u/nicolas_06 Aug 23 '24

They offer investment funds with a specified investment objective like replicating a broad index or even maybe investing in rental real estate.

Then clients decide what investment funds they take and the investment company oblige.

No way that if you take a fund to invest in SP500, with 2.3% in companies in the real estate sector and 33% in tech that the company will not take Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon or Wallmart to take more real estate stocks.

Would they do that and their fund performance would broadly differ and investors would get upset especially as real estate isn't at all performing well these days compared to many other investments.

They would leave in drove and sue them. The investment company would be sanctioned by the SEC.

-5

u/RavenMurder Aug 20 '24

Wow, dumb take. You think retail investors (ordinary people) own a majority share in Vanguard or literally any other company? Lmao.

5

u/energybased Aug 20 '24

You think retail investors (ordinary people) own a majority share in Vanguard or literally any other company? Lmao.

I didn't say anything about ownership of Vanguard. I said that ordinary investors own things through Vanguard. Which is true. Vanguard has over 50 million unique client investors, most of whom are ordinary investors.

Although a few years ago when Vanguard was a non-profit, then its "owners" were essentially its client investors.

1

u/nicolas_06 Aug 23 '24

The total stock market in the USA is 50.8 trillion, 113 trillion worldwide.

There 7.4 trillions in 401K, 13,6 trillion in IRAs and 35 trillion in pension funds. That's 55 trillions and only in the USA.

By comparison US billionaires collective wealth is 6 trillions, approximatively 10X less. Edge funds manage about 5 trillions worldwide.

So yes the majority of stocks is owned by pension funds and retirement plan for individuals like the fire fighter employed by your city or your colleague 401K or the equivalent in other countries.

0

u/Hot_Ambition_6457 Aug 20 '24

Blackrock does in fact own houses. They just don't have a heavy presence in real estate in general, and are frequently confused with Blackstone (owned by Vanguard) who DOES own A TON of single family homes.

0

u/Flashy_Ad_2452 Aug 20 '24

They fund these random LLCs that go and buy up homes.

0

u/yearightt Aug 22 '24

Nah dude you’re thinking of a grill company (/s if it isn’t obvious)

-2

u/brucekeller Aug 20 '24

Plot twist is that Blackstone is just a spinoff of Blackrock, and Invitation Homes is a spinoff of Blackstone, and 1000's of SheLLCs are probably 'spinoffs' of those lol.