4 Dismembering the Octopus hl

4 Dismembering the Octopus TOWARD A RADICAL MARKET IN CORPORATE CONTROL
Note:4@@@@@@@@@@

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,576

BlackRock, Vanguard, Fidelity, State Street.
Note:TUTTI LE CONOSCONO...MA COSA FANNO?...QUALCOSA NELLA FINANZA

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,578

institutional investors.
Note:DI SOLITO SI USA L ESPRESSIONE

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,578

rarely discussed outside the specialized financial press,
Note:ANCHE SE SONO I PIÙ POTENTI

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,579

Together, they control more than a fifth of the value of the US stock
Note:FATTI

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,580

JP Morgan, United Airlines, Verizon, Google.
Note:COMPAGNIE CONTROLLATE DA....

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,582

How can these asset managers fly so securely under the radar
Note:PERCHÈ I PIÙ POTENTI SONO ANCHE I PIÚ SCONOSC

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,584

they are diversified and many of their investments are held somewhat passively.
Note:IPOTESI

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,585

they own stock in a wide range of companies

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,586

Passivity means that they do not frequently buy and sell

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,586

They also often manage the assets that are technically owned by workers
Note:SONO ISTITUZ

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,587

Vanguard has been rightly praised for pioneering low-cost index funds,
Note:VANGUARD

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,588

avoid the hazards of stock-picking.
Note:FUNZIONE

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,590

institutional investors have harmed a wide range of industries, raising prices for consumers, reducing investment
Note:SONO SOGGETTI CHE INCIDONO SULL ECONOMIA

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,591

This outcome is not, as far as we know, the result of any deliberate conspiracy

Note | Location: 2,592

MA ATTENZIONE

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,593

giving institutional investors more control over companies—but over individual companies rather than over industries.
Note:LA SOLUZIONE X RIPRISTINARE LA COMPET

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,595

The Monopolist with a Thousand Faces
Note:Tttttttttttrr

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,595

The word “monopoly” was coined by Aristotle
Note:M

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,598

the state,
Note:LA PRINCIPALE FONTE DI MONOPOLII

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,598

well-connected individuals or groups
Note:LA CATTURA

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,600

the monopolistic control of the British East India Company over the trade in tea.
Note:ORIGINE DELLA SECESSIONE USA

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,601

local banks
Note:MONOP PICCOLE IMPRESE 900

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,602

Large enterprises or projects, like the construction of canals,
Note:NESSO ESSENZIALE CON LO STATO

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,603

advances in technology and developments in the law eventually allowed entrepreneurs to form business enterprises large enough to undertake vast industrial projects.
Note:POI...TECNO E LEGGE

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,604

entrepreneurs sold stocks and bonds
Note:STRUMENTO

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,606

the possibility that the businesses could restrict competition, becoming monopolies without any aid from the state
Note:PREOCCUPAZ...LA LEVA DELLA BORSA

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,608

monopolies’ incentives to impede trade and reduce production in order to raise the price
Note:ANTOINE COURNOT

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,614

primary impediment to the operation of free markets and the central cause of inequality,
Note:IL MONOPOLIO X WALRAS

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,618

about the last thirty years of the nineteenth century.
Note:ROBBER BARON...USA

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,618

transportation, energy, manufacturing, finance.
Note:IN TUTTI I SETTORI

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,619

one company would buy up others.
Note:CRWAZIONI X ACQUISIZIONE

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,620

The company then bought up its competitors.
Note:STANDARD OIL

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,622

U. S. Steel and the American Tobacco Company.
Note:ALTRI MONOP

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,623

They contributed to the economic and political inequality of the Gilded Age
Note:GILDED AGE

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,624

novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Note:IMMORTALATA

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,625

In 1890, Congress passed the Sherman Act

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,627

the new law became a powerful tool in the hands of the Progressive movement
Note:USO POLITICO

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,630

The first great Progressive president, Theodore Roosevelt,
Note:PROG ERA

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,632

spread the fixed costs of production over many more consumers
Note:MA LA GRANDE IMPRESA NN È SOLO MALE

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,632

lower prices,

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,633

eliminate local monopolies

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,634

It would thus never have made sense simply to abolish big business.
Note:INSOMMA

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,634

“horizontal” concentration
Note:LA PIÙ XICOLOSA

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,642

The Clayton Act of 1914 strengthened antitrust law
Note:SOTTO WILSON

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,648

It took a Great Depression and the rise of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal to establish an activist antitrust
Note:IL PICCO

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,649

Regulators and courts became more aggressive

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,650

prohibiting firms from buying the stock of other firms.
Note:CLAYTON ACT

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,652

the “Red Queen” phenomenon,
Note:Ttttttttttt

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,653

“Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.”
Note:ALICE...FATTA LA REGOLA GABBATO LU SANTO

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,655

work-around used by business,

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,656

getting new laws

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,660

Beginning in the 1970s and accelerating from the 1980s onward, antitrust authorities lost track of the ways in which capital markets reconfigured themselves
Note:NEL RED QUEEN L AMMINISTRAZ È XDENTE

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,662

we must examine the evolution of the corporate form
Note:CRUCIALE X CAPIRE

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,663

Acephalous Cephalopods

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,664

public stock corporation
Note:STANDARD FORM NEL XX SECOLO

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,665

its stock and debt typically trade on an
Note:IL VANTAGGIO CHIAVE NELL EFFICIENZA

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,667

Ownership became liquid:
Note:LIQUIDA

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,669

liquid public ownership also created a paradox
Note:PARADOSSO

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,669

Adolf Berle and Gardiner Means
Note:SCOPRITORE

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,676

“ownership” of a corporation was very different from ownership of ordinary property.
Note:UN PROP MOLTO ARTICOLARE

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,676

If you own your car, you both control it
Note:POTERE E CONTROLLO

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,678

The problem goes back to voting,
Note:CONTROLLO VOTO MAGGIORANZE

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,679

your vote is unlikely to make a difference.
Note:AZIONISTA FIAT

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,679

you are unlikely to pay much attention to how Google is operated
Note:DISINTERESSE

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,680

you are in no position to exercise your vote in an informed way.
Note:NO INFO

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,681

stock ownership is beneficial only because it gives you the ability to enjoy gains
Note:OGGI

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,682

So, who does control corporations? Usually the managers.

Note | Location: 2,682

CHI CONTROLLA?

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,685

The separation of ownership and control gives rise to what economists call “agency costs.”
Note:COZTI D AGENZIA

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,687

use the corporation to enrich herself
Note:X ES FISSANDO PAGHE STRAORD

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,688

stock markets gave investors the power to obtain liquidity, but the price to be paid was loss of control
Note:RIASSUNTO

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,690

a market for takeovers
Note:IMPORTANTE X DISCIPLINARE I MANAGER...PRIMO STRUMENTO DELLA TRADIZIONE

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,691

current thinking focuses on corporate compensation
Note:SECONDO STRUMENTO

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,692

CEOs should be paid with stock,
Note:Ccccccc

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,693

Governments have tried to encourage firms to adopt “best practices”
Note:UN FILM GIÀ VISTO

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,694

none really resolves
Note:DELUSIONE

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,702

Effortless Capitalism
Note:Ttttttttttttt

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,703

economists developed financial ideas that came to be known as “portfolio theory”
Note:ASSUNTO

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,705

it makes more sense to buy shares in a diverse group of corporations mimicking the whole economy
Note:L IDEA CENTRALE...SOPPORTARE SOLO RISCHI SISTEMICI

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,707

Investors can avoid these stock-specific risks by diversifying widely
Note:DIVERSIFIC

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,709

The so-called efficient capital markets hypothesis
Note:SECONDO STRUMENTO TEORICO

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,709

anyone trying to pick an “undervalued” stock is deluding herself.
Note:IL MERCATO NN SI BATTE

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,711

that there is little point in stock-picking in the first place, certainly for amateur investors.
Note:CONCLUSIONE

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,712

ordinary investors often act irrationally.15
Note:INOLTRE...FINANZA COMPORTAMENTALE

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,715

The cheapest way to do this is via low-cost mutual funds (especially index funds) that track broad market indices.
Note:STRUMENTO CONCRETO X SEGUIRE IL CONSIGLIO...RISPARMIARE SULLE COMMISSIONI

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,717

mimic the index of interest (e.g., S&P 500).
Note:INDEX FUND

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,723

Index fund operations are relatively mechanical, so their costs are low;
Note:ROBOTIZZATO

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,726

institutional investors has risen dramatically, starting roughly in 1980 at about 4% control and leveling out around the Great Recession at 26%.
Note:CRESCITA VERTIGINOSA

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,737

This contrasts sharply with the heft of institutional investors.
Note:MA IL PESO NELLE DECISIONI....

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,742

they became the largest owners of the firms in which they invested.
Note:ISTITUZINALI

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,743

institutional investors might provide the market discipline
Note:UN IDEA

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,744

Vanguard, for example, owns more than 6% of Delta Airlines,
Note:ESEMPIKO

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,745

when Vanguard calls, Delta’s CEO will answer the phone

Note | Location: 2,745

Ccccccccc

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,764

antitrust enforcement aimed to prevent any single corporation from dominating an entire market.
Note:LA POLITICA TRAD ANTITRUST

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,766

institutional investors behave much as trusts
Note:DI FATTO

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,767

these institutions have the potential to eliminate competition
Note:NN SOLO IN UN SETTORE

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,770

it was not until 2012 that a brilliant young economist, José Azar, put together the puzzle.
Note:AZAR

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,772

What’s Wrong with Indexing?
Note:Ttttttttttttt

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,773

we need to return to the basic theory of competition

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,775

Suppose that GM and Ford are the only two automobile manufacturers in the US
Note:ES

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,777

lowering the price
Note:COMPETIZ

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,798

But as we have seen, most firms are not independently owned—instead, they are dominated by institutional investors who own large stakes in rival firms.
Note:COMPROPRIETÀ

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,799

imagine first that a single shareholder owns 100% of Ford and 100% of GM.
Note:ESPERIM

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,801

The shareholder would direct the CEOs of Ford and GM not to engage in price competition
Note:CONSEGUENZA

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,802

act as if the two firms were merged.
Note:FUSIONE

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,803

Real institutional investors own only about 5–10% of the companies, but the same logic holds.
Note:IN MISURA DEPOTENZIATA

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,804

Each institutional investor wants GM and Ford to forgo price competition
Note:PRICE COMP RIDUCE I PROFITTI

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,805

It doesn’t matter whether their stake is 100%, or 7%, or 6%,

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,833

On the other hand, CEOs often hold concentrated shares in the firms they manage.
Note:IL BILANCIAMENTO CEO...SPESSO INSUFF

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,836

The supporting evidence is supplied by the work of Azar, Martin Schmalz,
Note:L ISTITUZIONALE PESA ECCOME

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,836

One study considers the airline industry.
Note:Ttttttttt

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,842

Another study reaches a similar conclusion for the banking industry.

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,855

if firms coordinate their political activities, they are likely to be more effective in lobbying for their interests
Note:INOLTRE...LOBBING

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,858

The logical end point of institutional investment and diversification is the coordination of all capital
Note:LA FINE DELL IPERDIVERSIFIC

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,860

Restoring Competition
Note:Ttttttttttttt

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,861

ban institutional investors from diversifying their holdings within industries
Note:SOLUZIONE RADICALE

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,865

We would also allow institutional investors to remain diversified within, as well as across, industries as long as they did not grow too large.
Note:IN ALTERNATIVA...SOGLIA 1%%%

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,873

No investor holding shares of more than a single effective firm in an oligopoly and participating in corporate governance may own more than 1% of the market.
Note:REGOLA

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,875

how to define “oligopoly
Note:DIFFICOLTÀ

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,876

how to address firms that operate in multiple markets,
Note:ALTRO PROBLEMA

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,882

GOVERNANCE
Note:Ttttttttttttt

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,885

Institutional intermediaries compete and are rewarded on the basis of “relative performance”
Note:OGGI

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,890

it has gained nothing relative to its own competitors in the financial services industry.
Note:SE CI SI IMPEGNA IN X....POICHÈ TUTTI POSSIEDONO QUOTE

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,892

these incentives are greatly dampened relative to the case in which each corporation is mostly controlled by a single institutional investor.
Note:È OVVIO CHE

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,894

concentrating the interests
Note:COMANDAMENTO

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,898

That competition at present centers primarily on fees, services, and the illusory ability of fund managers to “pick” stocks.
Note:LA COMPETIZIONE TRA FONDI

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,904

By creating dominant, large, concentrated shareholders, our policy might disadvantage minority shareholders,
Note:CONTROINDICAZIONI DELLA PROP

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,910

DIVERSIFICATION
Note:TTTTTTTTTTT

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,910

The major objection to our strategy is that it could limit the diversification available
Note:L OB PRINCIP

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,913

if our policy did limit diversification within an industry, the size of this effect would be small.
Note:PRIMA RISP

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,923

If savers truly want that last bit of diversification, they can simply invest some of their money in many different institutional investors.
Note:SECONDO

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,926

index fund exception in our policy.
Note:INFINE

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,927

never communicates with the operational firms;
Note:STOP COMUNIC...GESTIONE ROBOTICA

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,931

Law on Our Side
Note:Tttttttttttt

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,987

Beyond Monopolies
Note:Ttttttttt

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,989

large firms pose a problem of monopsony as well with respect to workers.
Note:ALTRO PROB DEL MONOP

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,990

hold down the wages of workers who could not find good jobs outside of the industry they specialized in.
Note:ESPERIENZA ANCHE NEI ROBBER BARON

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,992

government introduced laws to support labor unions and protect workers from being overworked,
Note:LA SOLU ZIONE FINORA

Yellow highlight | Location: 2,996

antitrust has a powerful role to play in preventing monopsony
Note:OGGI

Yellow highlight | Location: 3,036

Luigi Zingales makes a forceful case in his 2012 book, A Capitalism for the People, that antitrust law should be used to block mergers that result in the acquisition of political influence
TO BIG TOO FAIL

COMPENSI AI MANAGER

Riccardo Mariani

Adesso · 

Amazon

 · 

COMPENSI AI MANAGER

Oggi i manager dei Fondi sono pagati sulla base della performance relativa (rispetto ai concorrenti), poiché tutti hanno partecipazioni ovunque nessuno è incentivato a spronare i manager delle partecipate. La regola che obbliga a concentrare nel settore colmerebbe la lacuna.

#Amazon

AMAZON.COM

Radical Markets: Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society

Revolutionary ideas on how to use markets to bring about fairness and prosperity for allMany blame today's economic inequality, stagnation, and political instability on the free market. The solution is to rein in the market, right? Radical Markets turns this thinking--and pretty much all conventi...

VIETATO DIVERSIFICARE

Riccardo Mariani

Adesso · 

Amazon

 · 

VIETATO DIVERSIFICARE

La teoria moderna del portafoglio si fonda sull'ipotesi dei mercati efficienti: in assenza di notizie riservate è impossibile battere sistematicamente il mercato. Da cio' deriva una strategia di gestione dei patrimoni ben precisa: diversificare al massimo. La diversificazione azzera il rischio non-sistematico e allinea il rendimento del patrimonio a quello di mercato. Per questo i cosiddetti investitori istituzionali cercano di avere una partecipazione in tutte le imprese principali. Tuttavia, da quando i patrimoni gestiti da questi soggetti sono esplosi la cosa procura gravi inconvenienti alla concorrenza: se nello stesso settore la maggioranza relativa delle principali imprese operanti è posseduta dai medesimi investitori è chiaro che non ci sarà grande concorrenza. Una teoria così lineare confermata dalla evidenze richiede un intervento, per questo si propone che sia impedita (o limitata) la diversificazione spinta del portafoglio degli investitori istituzionali all'interno di un settore economico. Più rischio per gli investitori istituzionali significa più concorrenza sui mercati.
#Amazon

AMAZON.COM

Radical Markets: Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society

Revolutionary ideas on how to use markets to bring about fairness and prosperity for allMany blame today's economic inequality, stagnation, and political instability on the free market. The solution is to rein in the market, right? Radical Markets turns this thinking--and pretty much all conventi...

REGINA DI CUORI

Riccardo Mariani

Adesso · 

Amazon

 · 

REGINA DI CUORI

Le leggi fiscali ci appaiono come un campo minato: sono difficili, malscritte, tortuose, contorte, vere e proprie trappole che la burocrazia sembra tendere al contribuente. Ma in questa storia chi è il cattivo? E’ forse il legislatore che delibera simile robaccia? E’ forse il burocrate che la chiede e la produce materialmente?

No, il cattivo è la Regina di Cuori.

Conoscete tutti il perfido personaggio che compare in “Alice nel Paese delle meraviglie” e che faceva notare: “devi correre sempre più veloce per restare sempre nello stesso posto”. Così le leggi fiscali: devono essere sempre più illeggibili per mantenere inalterata la loro efficacia.

Sarà che l’obbligo contributivo così come si presenta nelle società moderne ci appare immorale, cosicché non ci si fa molti scrupoli ad evitarlo e a mantenere, laddove è consentito, una compliance molto bassa. In pochi rubacchiano quando possono ma in molti eludono o evadono appena posso, evidentemente l’obbligo morale non è sentito. Una norma fiscale semplice è, in genere, anche semplice da evadere. Così si comincia a complicarla per renderla meno aggirabile. Tuttavia, una volta che col tempo la nuova condizione si chiarisce, si mettono a punto i nuovi metodi di evasione, finché la legge viene ulteriormente ritoccata facendo tesoro dell’esperienza. E via così fino a che i testi legislativi sembrano scritti da marziani in tilt. In altri termini: le legge fiscale non cambia per migliorarsi, cambia per poter restare ferma, almeno in termini di efficienza. Il cambiamento è una strategia di lotta all’ elusione più che di lotta per la giustizia.

Tutti noi di fronte a questa palude olezzante proviamo un senso di repulsione e cerchiamo un nemico con cui sfogarci, ma a volte questo nemico non c’è. O meglio c’è ma è fuori dalla nostra portata, si trova nel mondo delle Meraviglie e si chiama Regina di Cuori.

#Amazon

AMAZON.COM

Radical Markets: Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society

Revolutionary ideas on how to use markets to bring about fairness and prosperity for allMany blame today's economic inequality, stagnation, and political instability on the free market. The solution is to rein in the market, right? Radical Markets turns this thinking--and pretty much all conventi...

FACEBOOK E LA FINANZA

Riccardo Mariani

1 min · 

Amazon

 · 

FACEBOOK E LA FINANZA

BlackRock, Vanguard, Fidelity, State Street… ecco di chi parliamo quando parliamo del “mercato” e di “spread”. Questi soggetti, esistono, vivono alla luce del sole, hanno una governance trasparente e controllano 1/5 del risparmio statunitense (potrei fare altrettanti nomi di investitori istituzionali europei): perché non li conosciamo? Perché sfuggono ai radar? Perché di loro si occupa solo la stampa specializzata?

Forse perché per conoscerli meglio ci toccherebbe leggere e imparare, il che è molto meno divertente che cazzeggiare su Facebook e costruire appassionate narrazione sui poteri forti e il complotto finanziario.

#Amazon

AMAZON.COM

Radical Markets: Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society

Revolutionary ideas on how to use markets to bring about fairness and prosperity for allMany blame today's economic inequality, stagnation, and political instability on the free market. The solution is to rein in the market, right? Radical Markets turns this thinking--and pretty much all conventi...