John Coates on THE PROBLEM OF TWELVE

Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI Radio in New York

A “problem of twelve” arises when a small number of institutions acquire the means to exert outsized influence over the politics and economy of a nation. According to Harvard law professor John Coates, the Big Four index funds of Vanguard, State Street, Fidelity, and BlackRock control more than twenty percent of the votes of S&P 500 companies—a concentration of power that’s unprecedented in America. Then there’s the rise of private equity funds such as the Big Four of Apollo, Blackstone, Carlyle and KKR, which has amassed $2.7 trillion of assets, and are eroding the legitimacy and accountability of American capitalism, not by controlling public companies, but by taking them over entirely, and removing them from public discourse and public scrutiny. Join us as author John Coates examines the last few decades of transformation in the American economy — and calls our attention to what is sure to be one of the major political and economic issues of our time on this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large.