Our Lives in Their Portfolios: Why Asset Managers Own the World

In this wonkish polemic, political economist Christophers (Rentier Capitalism) excoriates the ballooning power of asset managers. He warns of the dangers of the asset management financial model, in which firms manage money on behalf of institutions rather than individuals, and explores its insidious takeover of housing and infrastructure. Outlining how asset managers came to dominate these markets, he tells how Australian asset managers bought up public electricity, gas, and communications infrastructure during the country’s 1990s privatization push. Around the same time, the Blackstone investment management company began purchasing multifamily rental properties on a large scale in the U.S. and expanded its acquisitions as housing prices plummeted during the Great Recession. The result, the author argues, has been an increasingly rich elite who draw massive profits by boosting utility and rent prices, leaving those who pay the bills worse off. Christophers highlights some shocking statistics (“Four in every ten of the world’s equivalent dollars are now controlled by and invested through asset managers”), but his involved discussions of the complex financial maneuverings of asset management companies can feel dry and esoteric, even as he makes clear their devastating effects. The stiff presentation mitigates the effectiveness of the whistleblowing. (Apr.)