There is a lot of disinformation going around in regard to corporate power, so I decided to provide some brief introductory information in the subject. Here are some facts in numbers and statistics.
The Big Four
[Merging of "big four" banks. Source]
The "big four" are four largest, commercial banks in United States:
- JPMorgan Chase - $2,423.8 trillion in total assets as of March 2016. (55th position in "Fortune 2016 Global 500" list)
- Bank of America - $1,685.5 trillion in total assets as of March 2016.
- Citigroup - $1,349.2 trillion in total assets as of March 2016.
- Wells Fargo - $1,101.0 trillion in total assets as of March 2016.
In the last quarter of 2014 they held about 45% ($4.6 trillion) of all commercial deposits in U.S.
(Also worth to note Goldman Sachs Group which is on the 5th place with $878.0 trillion of total assets and Morgan Stanley with $807.5 trillion of total assets. As of March 2016).
Big Oil (Aka Supermajors)
[Merging of "big oil" companies. Source]
"Big oil" consist of six multinational oil and gas corporations:
Exxon Mobil - $336.76 billion in total assets as of 2016. (6th position in "Fortune 2016 Global 500" list)
Royal Dutch Shell - $345 billion in total assets as of 2016.
Chevron Corporation - $185.39 billion in total assets as of 2016.
BP - $263.14Bbillion in total assets as of 2016.
Total S.A. - $110.94 billion in total assets as of 2016.
ConocoPhillips - $96.05 billion in total assets as of 2016.
10 Top Corporations in consumer goods (food and household/health care products only)
[Source]
Nestle - $90,033 billion revenue as of 2016. (66th position in "Fortune 2016 Global 500" list)
P&G - $76.27 billion revenue as of 2016.
Johnson & Johnson - $70,074 billion revenue as of 2016.
PepsiCo - $63,056 revenue as of 2016.
Unilever - $59,093 billion revenue as of 2016.
Coca-Cola - $44,294 billion revenue as of 2016.
Mars Inc. - $33 billion revenue as of end of 2014.
Kraft Foods - 18,205 lion revenue as of end of 2014.
General Mills - $17.90 billion revenue as of end of 2014.
Kellogg's - $14.8 billion revenue as of end of 2014.
Inequality
The consolidation of power through merging is very clear.
The unequal distribution of wealth makes our societies more and more unequal. In United States, power and wealth has accumulated within small percent of population (about 1%). The gap between rich and other social classes (medium, lower) class becomes wider and wider.
Globally, 1% of world's population now controls about 50% of planet's wealth (according to recent Credit Suisse report).
This problem is well explained in this video "Wealth Inequality in America" uploaded by YouTube user "politizane":
If you would like to know more about why inequality is bad four our society and public health, I would recommend the book "The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better" by Richard G. Wilkinson and Kate Pickett. It is thorough analysis of how inequality affects our societies. It combines large amount of statistical data and factors.
There is great TED talk by Richard G. Wilkinson called "Richard Wilkinson: How economic inequality harms societies":
I also recommend watching highly awarded documentary "The Corporation". It has been uploaded on YouTube by user "TheAzureWhale".
-logic
References:
Credit Suisse - "Global Wealth Databook 2015".
The Fortune - "Fortune 2016 Global 500".
Value Walk - "How Big Oil Took Over The Oil Market"
Banks Around The World - "Largest Banks In The United States"
For some of total asset and revenue quotas I used websites:
MarketWatch and YCharts