The study found a billionaire is either running or the principal shareholder of more than a third of the world’s top 50 corporations. Those businesses have a stock market value of £10trillion
The world’s richest 1% of people have more wealth that the bottom 95% put together, a report from Oxfam has revealed.
The charity’s analysis also highlights the influence of billionaires over the global economy.
The study found a billionaire is either running or the principal shareholder of more than a third of the world ’s top 50 corporations. Those businesses have a stock market value of £10trillion.
They include Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook owner Meta, and Amazon tycoon Jeff Bezos.
Oxfam warns that efforts to respond to critical global challenges, including the climate crisis and persistent poverty and inequality, are being “undermined by the ultra-wealthy and mega-corporations fueling inequality within and between countries.”
Amitabh Behar, Oxfam International’s executive director, claimed the impact of the United Nations to tackle such issues “is increasingly feeling diminished in a world in which billionaires are calling the shots.”
“The ultra-wealthy and the mega-corporations they control are shaping global rules to serve their interests at the expense of people everywhere,” he said.
The top 1% own 43 per cent of all global financial assets. Just two corporations control 40 per cent of the global seed market. The “big three” US-based asset managers – BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard – hold $20 trillion in assets, close to one-fifth of all investable assets in the world.
Behar said “While we often hear about great power rivalries undermining multilateralism, it is clear that extreme inequality is playing a massive role.
“In recent years the ultra-wealthy and powerful corporations have used their vast influence to undermine efforts to solve major global problems such as tackling tax dodging, making Covid-19 vaccines available to the world and canceling the albatross of sovereign debt.”
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