September 24, 2016
You don’t remember casting that vote? Well, you didn’t actually cast it, but if you have a 401(k) someone like Blackrock CEO Larry Fink cast the vote for you.
Most middle-income people have 401(k)s for their retirement and most of this money is in mutual funds. These mutual funds have control over the proxy votes for the shares they hold. This means that funds like Blackrock, which has more than $5 trillion in assets, have enormous say over the distribution of income in this country. And, as Gretchen Morgenson points out in her NYT column this morning, these folks almost always endorse outlandish pay packages for CEOs. As they say in Wall Street circles, what’s a few million dollars between friends?
So, if you’re upset about an economy where the rich keep getting richer, just remember, you voted for it, sort of.
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