Who Controls Your City?

As you know, there have been various commentaries posted here on "who controls what." In going through the glossy newspaper inserts last Sunday, it dawned on me that none of the glossy inserts were from locally-owned businesses. They were ALL corporate chains, or firms owned by huge private firms.

So here's a run-down on some of these companies so that you can see who controls your city. Now you'll know the source of that loud sucking sound money makes as it leaves your community. This is why it's so hard for local workers to get fair compensation, and for your local merchants to compete. In my opinion, this has gotten way out of hand, and we're all going to be worse off for it.

First, if you only want to grab a bite somewhere quick, here's a few choices.

• A&W All-American Food Restaurants
• Burger King
• KFC
• Long John Silver's
• McDonalds
• Pizza Hut
• Taco Bell
• Wendys

For a little bit more fancier fare, how about one of these restaurants:

• Bahama Breeze
• Capital Grille.
• Chili's
• China Coast
• LongHorn Steakhouse
• Maggiano's Little Italy
• Olive Garden
• On the Border Mexican Grill and Cantina
• Red Lobster
• Rocky River Grill House
• Romano's Macaroni Grill
• Seasons 52
• Smokey Bones Barbeque and Grill

Then for some shopping, perhaps:

• JoAnn Stores
• Kohls
• K-Mart
• Sears
• Target
• WalMart

If you need something electronic, there's:

• Circuit City
• Best Buy

For a pharmacy run, there's:

• CVS
• Walgreen

You can do the same lookup on any public corporation and see for yourself who owns what. You will also see that some of the major holders are nothing more than a "front" for another more powerful group. These fronts are simply a method to deceive the public. Simply look up who the major holders [of the major holders] are and see for yourself.

While working with this data, remember that it takes only approximately 10% of the shares to "control" a large widely-held corporation. Especially when management and insiders have little or zero ownership. These "plantation managers" simply take their marching orders and their large payoffs (uh, salaries), and everybody else doing the work be damned. If they show any empathy or conscience about what happens to their employees or customer base, they will simply be removed and replaced by another, more "aggressive leader."

Another problem we're now facing is the growth of private-equity groups, which do not have to make the same disclosures as publicly-held groups. This is why they keep gaining up on the SEC to "prevent" disclosure and accountability. They have to hide their connections.

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© 2007 by Edward Ulysses Cate
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