ShmoopTube

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Finance a la shmoop what are interlocking directorates? got global

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corporate Skull and Bones conspiracy theory on the brain well you'll need it [Man holding skull and bones conspiracy theory]

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when you think about this one an interlocking Directorate happens when a

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number of companies share directors so that each company is you know business

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friendly with the other the heyday of interlocking directorates was the

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Rockefeller era when the former wealthiest man in the world wanted to [John Rockefeller appears]

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control more or less everything in and around discovery, drilling, storage,

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distribution and banking in and around Big Oil

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so the Rockefeller interlocking Directorate of say nine white men on

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each board and yes in those days they were all white and men well three of

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them on this board overseeing the rockefeller holdings in drilling would

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also be on the board of well his company holdings in oil storage and

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these other three who sat on his oil storage board would also sit on his

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train plane and automobile distribution businesses well the boards are

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interlocked to be sure that each of the vertically integrated monopolies played

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nice with each other and you know kept the monopoly party going ooh and the [Board members playing monopoly]

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party did rage on for a very long time interlocking directorates got a lot of

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grief in the U.S at the time yes they did and that's noteworthy because well

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in Japan and Korea and Russia and other countries which make big products like

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cars and washing machines and cell phones that are competitive with the big [Kids playing sack race]

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US companies well they're interlocking directorates are the normal way of doing

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business you know the norm if gravity still

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exists well over time those interlocking directorates carry a structural

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advantage over the US system because they can rely on each other for supply

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and for demand they can plan many many years into the future and they can elbow

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out any would-be competition who might be there with huge heft in government [Man performs karate move on another man]

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help in the U.S it's kind of the opposite it's more like every company

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for him or herself so there's no cooperation there and the government

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it's more the enemy half the time than your business partner

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well interlocking directorates are not necessarily evil they're just a [Man with horns appears]

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component of a globally competitive industry where the structure of company

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ownership needs to reflect the basic concept that each share of common stock

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could and should carry one vote so now that you understand interlocking

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directorates we can finally get back to the question of who killed Kennedy this

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guy sure doesn't have an alibi [Big foot walking in a misty forest]

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