quinta-feira, 14 de dezembro de 2023

Blackrock takes control of states and central banks

 


Valentin Katasonov, in Geoestrategia
December 6th (leia em português)

In Russian and foreign media, we occasionally hear the name of an American company with the intriguing name Blackrock. It is much less known to most citizens than, say, Wall Street banks or Silicon Valley IT corporations.

In fact, Blackrock is the world's largest company by assets under management.
At the end of last year, this figure for Blackrock was $8.6 billion. This is an investment company that provides fiduciary management of client funds. In addition to Blackrock, there are three other giants with a similar profile who are approximately in the same "weight category": VanguardGroup, Inc., Fidelity Investments (FMR LLC), State Street. They are also called financial holdings. But Blackrock is the largest investing company amongst the Big Four. Blackrock and three other investment firms control a significant portion of the US economy through their equity investments. In particular, they are present in the capital of major Wall Street banks, IT corporations in Silicon Valley, large pharmaceutical companies, companies of the military-industrial complex (MIC), etc. However, Blackrock and the rest of the big four companies are also present in the economies of other countries.

But now I would like to draw attention to the fact that the big four investment companies and the American state are increasingly merging. And in this the Blackrock company in particular has excelled. In 2020, Joe Biden became President of the United States. And already at the beginning of 2021, a new team was formed in the presidential administration and in the government. In it we saw several people from the Blackrock company.

The most important figure is Brian Deese. He has been appointed director of the National Economic Council (CNE). Brian Deese has extensive experience in both public service and large companies. He was a senior advisor to President Obama and deputy director and director of the Office of Management and Budget. And during Donald Trump's presidency he worked at BlackRock, directing the sustainable investment division and evaluating projects based on ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) indicators.

And here's another figure: Wally Adeyemo. Janet Yellen appointed him deputy secretary of the Treasury. He originally from Nigeria. He was Chairman of the Obama Foundation (since 2019), Deputy National Security Advisor to the President of the United States on International Economic Affairs, and Deputy Director of the National Economic Council. Previously, he served as Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Markets and Development, and before that, he was a senior advisor at BlackRock. 

You may also remember Michael Pyle. He was named chief economic adviser to Vice President Kamala Harris. He has experience working in government agencies. During the Barack Obama era, he worked in the presidential administration for five years. He then moved to BlackRock, where he served as chief investment strategist.

Thus, we see that several important people move between BlackRock and the state apparatus (in the politically correct language of Washington, this is called "personnel turnover"). You can name numerous figures who yesterday were in government and today work at BlackRock. The most important figure among them is Thomas E. Donilon. He served in the Carter, Clinton and Obama administrations, including as chief of staff of the US State Department. At one time he was considered a candidate for the position of CIA director. Under Obama, he served as national security adviser from 2010 to 2013 and then moved to BlackRock. For ten years he has directed the BlackRock Investment Institute, the holding company's main analytical center.

In recent years, close relations have also been established between BlackRock and the US Central Bank, the US Federal Reserve System. Of particular interest is the year 2020, when the US economy was in a state of lockdown, caused by the so-called covid pandemic. In March of this year, the US monetary authorities (the Federal Reserve and the Ministry of Finance), in agreement with Congress and the president, announced a multi-billion dollar assistance program. The US Federal Reserve promised to print about $4 trillion in a short period of time, and the US Treasury promised to provide $2.2 trillion in budget assistance. Of the $4 trillion in money issued by the Federal Reserve, about half was supposed to be provided to the Treasury in the form of a loan, and the other half was to be used directly to provide credit support to the hardest-hit industries and businesses. 

Traditionally, the US Federal Reserve has lent to the US economy according to the classic scheme, that is, granting loans to companies not directly, but through commercial banks. And in 2020, a new plan to support companies by the US Central Bank was born. Special companies were created, called Special Purpose Vehicles - SPV. The founder of these companies was the US Treasury Department, which formed their authorized capital (454 billion dollars from the treasury were allocated for the capitalization of SPV). But the most interesting thing is this: the official monetary authorities of the United States decided that the investment company BlackRock would manage the activities of the SPV.

Thus, BlackRock gained access to the management of SPV companies, through which billions and even trillions of dollars left the printing press of the United States Federal Reserve. I wrote about this story in detail three years ago. In particular, in the article “THE GREAT RESET: BLACKROCK – THE MYSTERIOUS CREATOR OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER”, I described the appointment of a financial holding company as the money manager of the Federal Reserve as follows: “BlackRock will not only make colossal money with these operations. In fact, she will manage the cash flows. This means that the company is not a simple intermediary, it gains power and becomes part of the US monetary authorities. The monetary duumvirate (Fed plus Treasury) becomes a triumvirate (Fed plus Treasury plus BlackRock). Some experts do not even rule out a scenario in which the US Federal Reserve becomes a technical appendage of BlackRock: the former will only issue money, and the latter will decide who to donate to and under what conditions.

And this is what international finance expert Ellen Brown wrote about this in 2020 in the article “Meet BlackRock, the new great vampire squid”: “At that time "When the public was distracted by protests, riots and lockdowns, BlackRock suddenly emerged from the shadows to become the "fourth branch of government" that manages the central bank's fiat money controls.

I noted earlier that BlackRock is present in other countries' economies. As Ellen Brown noted, "BlackRoc is a global financial giant with clients in 100 countries and tentacles in major asset classes around the world". 

Until recently, the financial holding company was present in the Russian economy. BlackRock has created a large exchange-traded fund for Russian stocks, Russia ETF, in Russia itself. But after the start of the SVO in Ukraine and Western economic sanctions, the Russian ETF initiated a procedure to close that fund (by the end of this year, it should be completely gone). BlackRock has created similar funds in many other countries and they are working.

The most important area of Blackrock's investment activities is the buyback of government bonds of other countries. It is evident that the monetary authorities of other countries are forced to look to the heads of financial holding companies. But this is the invisible influence of Blackrock. And with it, there is something else more visible.

For some time now, BlackRock has begun to actively interfere in the activities of the monetary authorities and financial regulators of other countries. Firstly, in relation to ESG (environmental, social and governance) standards, these are environmental, social and corporate governance standards. The history of the emergence of these standards is quite confusing. Serious experts believe that the global financial elite (“the owners of money”) need them to redistribute assets on a global scale in their favor and establish effective control over the world economy.

BlackRock has become a key player in advancing ESG around the world. The financial holding company announced that it will not acquire assets or divest from the assets of those companies and organisations that do not comply with ESG standards. In this sense, BlackRock began consulting with financial regulators in other countries so that the latter will monitor compliance with ESG standards by participants in national financial markets. In fact, BlackRock began pressuring other states to adopt appropriate ESG regulations and monitor their implementation.

And the latest news from the United Kingdom shows that BlackRock plans to interfere in UK government decisions. A Blackrock representative will soon be involved in the selection of a candidate for the position of deputy governor of the Bank of England responsible for monetary policy. Ben Broadbent has served two terms in this position, but his term expires next June. 

BlackRock's head of Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Stephen Cohen, is part of a five-person panel that will conduct interviews and make decisions on candidates. The decision on the procedure for selecting the deputy governor of the Bank of England and the composition of the commission was made in the UK Treasury.

Several experts commented "in a politically correct way" that the British Treasury's decision on the procedure for selecting the deputy director of the Central Bank contains a "conflict of interest." Carsten Jung, a senior economist at the Institute for Public Policy Research who previously worked at the Bank of England, said the Treasury deal created "the appearance of a conflict of interest, given that the bank is responsible for overseeing the financial system and demanding “responsibilities are the person who represents one of the most influential actors in the financial markets in the contracting process.”

On Russian social media, many drew attention to this news from the United Kingdom. Here is one of the comments in this regard: “In general, this situation indicates the loss of financial influence of governments and the strengthening of the role of investment funds and transnational companies. “Governments are becoming the formal fronts that transnational companies use to promote their interests.”

BlackRock: The Company that Owns the World:  

Original in Spanish: https://geoestrategia.es/noticia/41903/politica/blackrock-toma-el-control-de-los-estados-y-los-bancos-centrales.html

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