Compilation image showing Donald Trump (Left) and Kamala Harris (Right), two sides of the same coin. Photo: Geopolitical Economy Report.
By Ben NortonĀ –Ā Nov 5, 2024
Billionaire BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said it āreally doesnāt matterā who wins the US presidential election, because both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will be good for Wall Street. Academic studies show the USA is not a democracy but an oligarchy.
The billionaire CEO of BlackRock, the worldās largest asset manager, has said it āreally doesnāt matterā who wins the US presidential election, because both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will be good for Wall Street.
āIām tired of hearing this is the biggest election in your lifetime. The reality isĀ over time it doesnāt matterā, said BlackRock chief Larry Fink at an October 21 conference hosted by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, according to the Financial Times.
āIt really doesnāt matterā, Fink reiterated. He revealed that, at BlackRock, āwe work with both administrations and are having conversations with both candidatesā.
BlackRock has $11.5 trillion assets under management, making it the biggest investment company on Earth.
BlackRock has a revolving door with the US government. Veterans of the asset manager have held high-levelĀ roles in the Joe Biden administrationās Treasury. A BlackRock executive has likewise served as a prominentĀ economic advisor for Kamala Harris.
Trumpās Treasury, on the other hand, was run by Goldman Sachsā former chief information officer, Steven Mnuchin, who made a fortune as a hedge fund manager.
Trump andĀ HarrisĀ have competed to see who could getĀ more support from Wall Street.
As president, Trump significantly cut taxes on the rich, leadingĀ billionaires to pay lessĀ than the working class. The richest 400 US families paid an average effective tax rate of 23% in 2018, which was lower than the 24.2% average paid by the bottom 50% of households.
Trump has pledged to further reduce taxes on the rich. AnĀ analysis of Trumpās tax proposalsĀ by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy showed that they would be extremely regressive: the richest 5% of Americans would see a tax cut of at least 1.2%, whereas the bottom 95% of people will have to pay more, including a 4.8% tax increase for the poorest 20% of the country.
One of the topĀ financiers of Trumpās presidential campaigns, in 2024 and 2020, is the billionaire CEO of Blackstone, Stephen Schwarzman, who in 2022 was proclaimed theĀ highest-paid chief executive in the US financial services industry.
Schwarzman is a Republican Party mega-donor, and wasĀ Wall Streetās number one funder of political campaignsĀ in the 2020 election cycle.
Vote However You Feel; This Whole Show Is About Feelings Anyway
Blackstone is the worldās largest alternative asset manager, and the biggest commercial landlord on Earth. The investment company owns and manages more thanĀ 300,000 rental housing units in the United States.
Blackstone has evicted homeowners in numerous states, contributing to aĀ growing crisis of homelessness, which grew by 12% in 2023.
The Guardian succinctly encapsulated justĀ how powerful Blackstone has become:
Blackstone is the largest commercial landlord in history. Over the past two decades, it has quietly taken control of apartment blocks, care homes, student housing, railway arches, film studios, offices, hotels, logistics warehouses and datacentres. Blackstone doesnāt just own real estate, it owns everything ā or thatās how it can feel when you start to examine its bewildering array of assets. If you wear Spanx, have ever matched with someone on Bumble, stayed in a Hilton hotel or a CentreParcs resort, visited Legoland, Madame Tussauds, the London Dungeon or an elderly relative at a Southern Cross care home, you have encountered a company that forms, or has recently formed, part of the Blackstone empire.
US investors buying up residential real estate has fueled an explosion in housing prices, turning familiesā homes into a speculative asset rather than a place to live.
The cost of housing in the United States has grown significantly faster than wages in the past decade. The housing bubble that burst in 2008 was simply reinflated after 2012, and is much larger today.
Approximately 45% of US households spend more than 30% of family income on rent, over 30% of households spend more than 40% of family income on rent, and nearly one-quarter of households spend more than 50% of family income on rent, according to theĀ 2024 Economic Report of the President.
Although BlackRock and Blackstone are different companies, they have overlapping histories, andĀ BlackRock owns 6.56% of Blackstone, making it the second-largest shareholder.
Blackstoneās biggest shareholder is Vanguard, which has a 9.05% stake. The fourth-largest is State Street, which owns 4.12%.
BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street are popularly known as the āBig Threeā US index fund mangers.
A 2017 academic paper found that theĀ Big Three were the largest shareholders of 438 of corporations in the S&P 500, an index that consists of the 500 biggest companies listed on US stock exchanges. These 438 firms made up 88% of the total of S&P 500 companies, representing 82% of the indexās market capitalization at the time.
Big Three (BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street) ownership of US companies, as of 2017
When he was campaigning for president in 2019, Joe Biden promised wealthy donors in Manhattan that he would not ādemonizeā the rich, and that, if he won, āno oneās standard of living will change,Ā nothing would fundamentally changeā.
US presidents, whether Republican or Democrat, have consistently kept this promise to serve the rich.
Just 10% of people in the United StatesĀ own 93% of stocks, whereas the bottom 50% of the country holds just 1%, as of 2023. This is the highest level of equity ownership concentration in recorded history.
The wealthiest 50% of Americans receive 95% of capital income. TheĀ top 10% alone get 60% of income from capital, and 90% of income from financial assets.
An influential 2014Ā study by scholarsĀ at Princeton and Northwestern Universities empirically showed thatĀ the United States is an oligarchy, not a democracy. The academics wrote (emphasis added):
Multivariate analysis indicates thatĀ economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, whileĀ average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence. The results provideĀ substantial support for theories of Economic-Elite DominationĀ and for theories of Biased Pluralism, but not for theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy or Majoritarian Pluralism.
TheĀ 2024 election is the second-most expensiveĀ in the history of the United States, with approximately $16 billion spent. This enormous sum was only surpassed in the 2020 election, which cost a staggering $18.3 billion.
In the past decade, the amount of money spent on US elections has roughly doubled, from $8.5 billion in 2016.
Why do wealthy donors spend so much on US elections? Because they have a lot of success investing in politicians.
Over the past two decades, on average, theĀ candidates who have the most funding win the electionsĀ in the House of Representatives over 90% of the time and in the Senate roughly 80% of the time.
Ben Norton
Benjamin Norton is the founder and editor of the independent news website Multipolarista, where he does original reporting in both English and Spanish. Benjamin has reported from numerous countries, including Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Ecuador, Honduras, Colombia, and more. His journalistic work has been published in dozens of media outlets, and he has done interviews on Sky News, Al Jazeera, Democracy Now, El Financiero Bloomberg, Al Mayadeen teleSUR, RT, TRT World, CGTN, Press TV, HispanTV, Sin Censura, and various TV channels in Mexico, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia. Benjamin writes a regular column for Al Mayadeen (in English and Spanish). He was formerly a reporter with the investigative journalism website The Grayzone, and previously produced the political podcast and video show Moderate Rebels. His personal website is BenNorton.com, and he tweets at @BenjaminNorton.
