BlackRock: the Company That Controls* the World's Governments
You wake up to the sound of the alarm on your iPhone, and annoyed that you couldn't get more sleep, you grudgingly unlock your phone to see what's going on in the world. There's an email from Amazon telling you that your package has been delivered, so you force yourself out of bed to get the package. It's some Johnson and Johnson medicine you ordered the night before—the wonders of overnight shipping, you think to yourself.
You glance across the room to see the clock; it's 8:00 a.m., and you have to be at work by 9:00. Flustered, you open your Microsoft computer to answer some work email before getting dressed. There's no time to cook breakfast, so you'll just grab something at McDonald's on your way to work.
What if I told you that every single company you just interacted with within the first hour of your day is heavily influenced, in large part, by one company: Black Rock? Now, I'm sure you've heard about Black Rock. There are dozens of videos here on YouTube that talk about how it's the company that controls the entire world, but the reality is far less glamorous. Here is why everything you've heard about Black Rock is wrong.
Before we talk about that, let's talk about data. Every time we browse on the internet, companies collect an insane amount of data from us—information that is then sold to data brokers who, in turn, sell it to the highest bidder or just lose that information in data breaches. According to a report from the Identity Theft Resource Center, there were 68% more breaches in 2021 than in 2020, and that number is only going up.
A few months ago, my friend got an email telling him that his information was released in a data breach from a company that he had never heard of. Right after, he started getting personalized email ads from shady companies. This is how scammers are able to figure out your phone number, name, and even your address.
The good news is that you can get these data brokers to delete the information they have about you. Sadly, to do it manually could take years. This is why I love using the sponsor of today's episode, Incog. All you have to do is create an account and grant them the right to work for you, and that's it. Incog will reach out to data brokers on your behalf to request all your personal data be deleted and deal with any objections from the data brokers.
To get started, sign up using the link in the description. The first 100 people to use code "aperture" with the link below will get 60% off. Incog is completely risk-free for 30 days, so I encourage every one of you to at least give it a try, and if you're not happy, you get a full refund. I can assure you, when you see just how many data brokers have your information, you'd definitely want to keep your subscription.
Back to our story: Black Rock is an investment firm that controls a huge number of shares in some of the largest companies in the world. They have a total of $10 trillion in assets across the globe. That's an amount equal to half of America's total GDP, controlled just by one company. It's easy to dismiss such a powerful company as all-out evil, but the truth is Black Rock doesn't own these companies or even own shares of these companies. Their clients own the shares; Black Rock simply manages them.
That's not to say that Black Rock doesn't have any influence on these companies; they definitely do because they control such an incredible amount of their stock. It's possible that companies want to keep in Black Rock's good graces so they don't pull their investments. Now, while Black Rock might not be the evil company some people make them out to be, the truth is there's still something very shady about them: their hypocrisy.
Black Rock was founded 34 years ago by Larry Fink, and he grew the company from $5 million in value to $8 billion in just 5 years, primarily by managing money invested by large institutions like pensions, university endowments, and substantial fortunes invested by the uber-rich. Today, Fink serves on the Council on Foreign Relations and the World Economic Forum, commanding the attention of business tycoons and political leaders around the globe.