They Rule - The Links Between Corporations

October 17, 2008 by Curt Siters

I love listening to Tom Hartmann because, while I don’t agree with every point of view he has, his show is always informative. Last nights’ show was no exception because he gave out the name of a website that I found to be almost captivating. TheyRule.net is this little flash program that allows you to see who sits on the board or is a member of various corporations and institutions and to see the links between them. It creates a roadmap of the “halls of (corporate) power.”

After playing with the application for a few minutes to see how it worked I started tracing in earnest. The image to the left is a small portion of the map, as TheyRule.net calls it, of what I found. Click the image to see where I stopped. I started with the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and started exploring the connections of its’ members. I wasn’t sure where it would take me but I started noticing something. A number of the organizations involved in this latest bailout have close ties with the CFR! By close I mean one or two board members away. These corporations include:

• Fannie Mae
• Freddie Mac
• Countrywide Financial
• AIG
• CitiGroup
• Morgan Stanley
• Berkshire Hathaway
• Gannett (media)
• AOL/TimeWarner (media)
• New York Times
• New York Stock Exchange
• NASDAQ

At this time I only saw that there were only flash applications for 2001 and 2004. 

One thing you have to bear in mind is that these maps don’t show “social” relationships between the people involved. These “social” relationships may also be conducive to business before or after membership on a board of directors

Take a look at it and have some fun.

###

Curt Siters is an Independent Associate for Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. He is also aYoung Living Essential Oils Independent distributor and publishes articles on YourWebReference and at TheVeryEssence. He also does web work such as website design, website maintenance and SEO for websites.

Join me on any of the following sites: LinkedIn, Twitter, friendfeed, Facebook.