“These guys run the world” — BlackRock recruiter caught boasting about buying Senators “cheap”

By Jo Nova

BlackRock logo

James O’Keefe formerly the soul of Project Veritas is back — he’s set up O’Keefe Media Group (OMG News). One of his insiders filmed Serge Valay, A recruiter at BlackRock, bragging about how they work.

“It’s not who the President is, it’s who controlling the wallet of the President.” “Who’s that?” she asks. “The Hedge Funds, BlackRock, the banks. These guys run the world.”

..you take a big f– ton of money and then you can start to buy people. Obviously we have this system in place. First, there’s the senators. These guys are f***ing cheap. You got ten grand? You can buy a senator.

BlackRock don’t want people to notice them:

“BlackRock don’t want to be in the news. They don’t want people to talk about them. They don’t want to be anywhere on the radar.”

“Why not?” she asks.

“I don’t know … I suspect because it’s easier to do things when people aren’t thinking about it.”

What kind of things are easier to do in the dark? Things other people won’t like.

News – he says, is propaganda. If you hear it on the news, do the opposite. If Jim Kramer says buy, you should sell. He’s an inverse indicator…

Volatility creates opportunity to do business.

War is really f** good for business.

As I’ve written before, there’s a reason everything seems to be going off the rails simultaneously: It’s fed by a dark bubble.

Vast amounts of “money printing” via low interest rates and easy loans mean the rich get richer, and pools of wealth equivalent to whole nations falls under the control of just one or two men. When men with trillions of dollars in their pockets can “do favours” for politicians, who in turn do favours for them, no wonder the politicians don’t care much what the voters think.

Don’t wait for the receipts. Ask the question: If a few men had this kind of power, hypothetically, what would stop them using it?

Democracy was sold to the highest bidder.

h/t ColA

Photo of logo by eflon on Flickr. Adapted. CC by 2.0.

 

10 out of 10 based on 81 ratings

47 comments to “These guys run the world” — BlackRock recruiter caught boasting about buying Senators “cheap”

  • #
    David Maddison

    It’s as though nearly everything told to us by the Establishment / Elites / Deep State / politicians is a lie.

    620

  • #
    David Maddison

    Of course, it will come as no surprise that Larry Fink, BlackRock CEO, is a woke Leftist DemocRAT supporter.

    https://www.influencewatch.org/person/larry-fink/

    Fink is known for left-leaning politics, was a supporter of Hillary Clinton’s presidency in 2016 and has been discussed several times as a possible Democratic administration Secretary of the U.S. Treasury. 2

    Fink has made repeated public pronouncements regarding his intention to inject his left-of-center climate policy goals and an Environmental, Social, & Governance (ESG) ideology into BlackRock’s investment and management strategies. A 2019 report from the Fox Business Channel stated Fink had “ruffled feathers inside his company, as well as among some clients for embracing a number of progressive political causes and advocating what has been described as “corporate socialism” – a management concept that implores CEOs to run their companies in a way that doesn’t just benefit shareholders, but also “the communities in which they operate.”” One critic inside BlackRock told Fox Business that Fink had a fixation on “identity politics and virtue signaling that a CEO of a public company shouldn’t be engaged in.” Similarly, a corporate governance expert from the University of Delaware judged that BlackRock’s political agenda was “fundamentally not the role of a public company,” and that Fink’s behavior was “unfair to investors who may not agree with his politics.” 3 4 5

    SEE LINK FOR REST

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    • #
      Muzza

      All he would need to be appointed into the Dem swamp would be the standard 10% for the Big Guy. Oh, wait……

      170

  • #
    Peter Fitzroy

    The left have been commenting on this for years. Big tobacco, big oil, big pharma, are but 3 examples of regulatory capture.

    Remember that after the citizens united case in the USA – money is speech, and therefore it is not bribery, just persuasion.

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    • #
      b.nice

      As late as 1988, Al Gore was bragging in a speech to tobacco farmers in North Carolina, “Throughout most of my life, I raised tobacco.”

      220

    • #
      David Maddison

      But the Left are the CAUSE of the problem of regulatory capture otherwise known as crony capitalism – the idea of pandering to special interest groups via regulation.

      The Left love massive regulation, way above the minimum necessary.

      E.g. solar and wind power (favours to energy subsidy harvesters), favours to Big Pharma by enforcing vaccine mandates for expensive poorly tested covid vaccines and other treatments and denying the use of alternative treatments, promotion of a “hydrogen economy” or “renewables” in general with no proper engineering or economic analysis, promotion of transgenderism to suit an ideological agenda with no medical evidence of its efficacy (and lifelong purchases from Big Pharma), various military contracts which are hugely overpriced, restraint of competition, hugely over-restrictive land use regulations increasing the cost of land benefiting realtors etc. etc. etc..

      If free enterprise was allowed to happen, there would be no laws favouring one special interest group over another. Competition would exist and prices would be lower.

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      • #
        b.nice

        Not to mention fascist evil like Soros, Schwab, Fink, … they want control over everything.

        They want to destroy prosperity for everyone but themselves. (eg Soros shorting the BE.)

        The Right want to enhance prosperity for everyone, because they know that is where wealth keeps coming from.

        340

        • #
          Jaye

          Soros once said he wanted to feel power over people again. He might be Jewish by birth, but he betrayed a few into Nazi custody when he was just a teenager and he loved the feeling of control. Still does, in his lifelong attempt to force humanity into his Nazi/Fascist Utopia.

          Of course, Google-washing has removed that interview from the 80s.

          70

          • #
            Saighdear

            Hmm, it’s funny then too how the doctors for Pb def’y haven’t gotten around to visiting him, and his kind.

            10

      • #

        If free enterprise was allowed to happen, there would be no laws favouring one special interest group over another. Competition would exist and prices would be lower.

        Lovely thought. But no. You need anti-trust laws.
        Someone is always smarter, harder working, luckier, more persuasive….. and that leads to being more influential, havbing better access to finance, better access to the law, better access to politicians.

        If it is not controlled, bigger companies will always digest smaller companies, and bankrupt competitors.
        Sure, they use all the available regulations, and some should be discarded, and more should be discouraged.
        But, strict anti-trust laws are absolutely essential in capitalism.

        There is no advantage to a people or a nation if something becomes much more efficient, usually by offshoring sourcing and labour. The only advantage is to the particular corporation and its executives creating the efficiency. Communities benefit far more from smaller scale, multi layered structures of various businesses which support and supply each other, and thus allow money to circulate.

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        • #
          David Maddison

          If it is not controlled, bigger companies will always digest smaller companies, and bankrupt competitors.

          And yet the reality is that that tends not to happen under free market conditions. It is primarily governments that create monopolies such as the monopoly on expensive solar and wind energy that people are forced to buy by prohibiting cheaper competition from power stations.

          And if a monopoly does comes about, it is always subject to many competitors wanting to grab some of the monopoly’s market share. It is always under threat from competition so has to either produce a cheaper and/or superior product or face losing market share and its monopoly. It can’t keep gobbling up competitors forever and experience shows that doesn’t tend to happen.

          Companies like BlackRock are in the business of exploitation of government regulations that require companies to invest in ESG such as solar, wind, and ideological social programs not really relevant to the core business of corporations. Companies that can’t afford the huge expense of ESG (or who aren’t woke) are discrimated against by financiers and governments and will possibly go out of business thus enhancing the power and possibility of a monopoly for the bigger companies that can afford ESG.

          An example of an E (environmental) program is the tremendous economic damage caused by solar and wind power.

          An example of an S (social) program is Bud Light telling it’s traditional customers they are no longer wanted and trying to capture an extreme minority group who have no interest in the brand anyway. Now the brand is bleeding cash and may even be shut down.

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          • #
            markx

            Thanks for your comment David, I am very interested in your viewpoint.

            Can you give an example of a relatively unregulated society which functions in the ideal manner you envisage?

            I’d cite as an example of ‘brute force’ the Australian grocery sales duopoly where two large supermarkets hold 65% of the grocery market, and are expanding rapidly into the fields of liquor and fuel. They are able to do this for two main reasons: they have almost unlimited access to finance, and they have enough buying power to be able to extort suppliers on both price and payment terms. They certainly can handle any regulatory matters, but that is a minor issue.

            10

        • #
          Tel

          You need anti-trust laws … [snip] … better access to politicians.

          If it is not controlled [by said politicians]

          Hopefully it’s not too difficult to figure out why you haven’t thought this through very well.

          PJ O’Rourke said it already, “When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators”

          What you have done is identify a problem, and then come up with a way to make it worse. Without anti-trust laws you can sometimes have a cartel that bribes politicians; while with anti-trust laws every business constantly needs to be doing favours for politicians even merely to operate … because if they don’t their competitors will use the political class to put them out of business.

          41

          • #
            Bruce

            How do you spot an honest politician?

            When they are bought, they STAY bought.

            SIMPLES!

            10

            • #
              Saighdear

              Huh, that’s as good as looking for that lost tire (& black wheel) somewhere on the road near Kiwirrkurra

              20

      • #
        John Connor II

        The Left love massive regulation, way above the minimum necessary.

        You can ignore reality, but you can’t ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.

        The loony left will be the first to complain when it all falls apart next year.

        “Save us, oh benevolent government” will be their cry.
        They can’t save you for they are the cause…

        80

        • #
          Saighdear

          I’m in the mood today to say: regulation like from parents, teachers, 11 fn s8ty inspectors, etc 😉

          10

  • #
    Neville

    We know that proper exposure about these left wing thugs would shift votes big time, but if FOX news can’t do it, then who else can?
    I’m sure the Fink loony would like to keep his exposure limited to his fellow extremists, but these loonies should be put front and centre every week and every year.
    The Republicans should hound them until they run away and really start to feel the pain of proper public exposure.
    Thanks to Jo Nova for again trying to make us aware of these festering sores, but the Conservative pollies and the MSM have to do a lot more and more often until these extremists feel the pain.
    IOW give them the full exposure they deserve and sit back and watch the panic. FOX News and the Republicans could do it, so what’s stopping them?

    220

    • #
      Saighdear

      I think we need to learn how to read / learn about CIRCUITS. then Pull the plug, or as they seem to be hardwired, find the fusible link!

      10

  • #
    Neville

    We know that corporate CEOs are now promoting the TOXIC W & S lunacy to try and wreck our OECD electricity grids ASAP.
    Yet even the stupid Swiss voters have fallen for this left wing idiocy hook, line and sinker. Willis Eschenbach checks the Swiss co2 data and finds it’s all BS and fraud AGAIN.
    And ditto for Aussies and the other 37 OECD countries as well.
    His OWI Data graph correctly shows the comparative BS and fraud, so why did they vote for this idiocy?

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/06/21/swiss-lemmings/

    140

  • #
    Broadie

    When men with trillions of dollars in their pockets can “do favours” for politicians, who in turn do favours for them, no wonder the politicians don’t care much what the voters think.

    The men with trillions of dollars do not use what is in their pockets. The money is your retirement funds, investments and taxes.

    Read Michael Smith’s breakdown of how Australian taxpayer funds were used by the usual suspects.

    On 22 February 2006 the Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Bill Clinton signed a $25M MoU triggering the first round of Australian donations to the Clinton Foundation.

    The MOU “superseded” the 2006 MOU with Clinton HIV/Aids Initiative. Bishop’s media release included two financial metrics – she said the new CHAI MoU

    “will support Australia’s $5 billion aid program”; and,
    “Since 2006, Australia has contributed $88 million to CHAI and its sister organisation, the Clinton Foundation”.

    Where did that money go? We were raising funds for PNG where the hospitals did not even have a bucket in the birthing area let alone potable water. Did $26M buy the carpet square that the nurse found it a joy to stand on?

    Bishop, Downer, Gillard, Clintons etc. Funny how they came back together for a cameo in the Crossfire Hurricane sequel.

    The one way to reduce the power of the Swamp is to hand back representation to the electors.
    Politicians compensated not remunerated. No career Politicians

    Paper ballot and local reporting and scrutineering. No Swamp Control

    No Party funding. End the congo-line of weird suck holes waiting for their turn at the trough.

    181

  • #

    As wonderful as capitalsim is, it needs pretty strict bumper guides. (ie, strongly enforced anti-trust laws)

    What we are seeing is the inevitable path of largely unregulated capitalism.
    The large continually devour or kill the small fry until there is only one company.
    We all end up working for it, and also buying all of our needs from it.
    Or we end up dead and discarded.

    71

    • #
      David Maddison

      I disagree.

      The deficiencies that exist are primarily due to over-regulation and crony capitalism / regulatory capture as per my post #3.2.

      Favoured companies are given regulatory protection against competition or protection from liability as happened with the defective covid vaccines.

      And there would be no destructive and expensive solar and wind generation if those companies were forced to operate in a free market. Solar and wind scams are probably the biggest we have going right now, even bigger than covid vaccine scams I suspect.

      161

    • #
      Robert Swan

      markx,

      … there is only one company. We all end up working for it,

      Funny, sounds like communism.

      Suggest you improve your argument. It’s pretty weak. Not that long ago people criticised capitalism because corporate raiders were splitting up large companies. Now you say capitalism inevitably leads to merger after merger. I think both mergers and demergers are inevitable.

      For my part, I don’t blame capitalism. Government is simply not doing its job. Indeed it’s working more like an organised crime syndicate.

      112

      • #
        Bruce

        As I recall, my reading of various scumbag “socialist” scribblers. the term “capitalist” was invented by those degenerates as a term of derision, that the “lumpenproletariat” would eagerly adopt.

        10

    • #

      Mark
      The problem is actually excessive overregulation and interference by govts, we need them to get out of the regulation business. We are in a whirlpool of ever increasing interventions that beget yet more interventions.

      At some stage it will all collapse.

      The Left cannot leave things alone and do not realise the catastrophic consequences of continual intervention. Covid was a microcosm of this with unjustified masking, unproven lockdowns and dangerous injections – all “necessary” according to the Left, but actually have made things far far worse.

      In finance we have had endless debts and of recent years interest rates driven to unnaturally low levels. The carnage is only just beginning…

      10

  • #
    Neville

    AGAIN here’s the fraud and corruption these Corporate con merchants are promoting about the necessity that the OECD countries lower their co2 emissions.
    Here’s the entire world co2 emissions since 1990.
    In 1990 22.76 billion tonnes.
    In 2021 37.12 billion tonnes.
    Or an increase of 14.36 billion tonnes.

    But the USA and EU 28 combined in 1990 9.59 billion tonnes.
    The USA and EU 28 combined in 2021 8.55 billion tonnes or a REDUCTION of 1.04 billion tonnes since 1990.
    When will we WAKE UP and THINK?

    https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/annual-co2-emissions-per-country?time=1970..latest&country=OWID_WRL~USA~European+Union+%2828%29

    70

    • #
      Neville

      Sorry that link didn’t work properly. I’ll try again later.
      But the numbers I quoted from OWI Data are correct from 1990 to 2021.

      40

  • #
    David Archibald

    The Deep State takes a lot of money to run. The CIA has a lot of financial insider information. What is the point of that unless they put it to use? And for that they need a vehicle, which is BlackRock, which also enforces their far left agenda. The CIA was captured by the left in the 1950s. In 1959 they financed Gloria Steinem.

    70

  • #
    Old Goat

    Dark bubble is like dark matter . You can see what its doing but you can’t pin it down . I doubt we know who all the players are because there are so many moving pieces in this situation . It is an existential threat that most people can’t (or won’t) see. As always follow the money.

    90

  • #
    Ross

    Up until about 2016 I had virtually zero interest in US politics and its machinations. There’s only so much politics you can consume before it makes you a little depressed. The most depressing thing about US politics is the influence it has over Australia and indeed worldwide economics. But US politics is really just a circus. Sure, this story is about Blackrock and Vanguard, but these guys are probably small players compared to pharmaceutical companies, defence industry companies and the many other “bigs”. Those industries have been influencing US politics forever. In fact, Big pharma are still far and away the biggest donors and influencers at Washington level.

    60

    • #
      Ross

      Also, those “big” industry influencers for US politics that have been at it for decades, generally donate to both parties. Maybe there’s a slight imbalance for some, but the philosophy is that sooner or later there will be change in government. So favours need to be brought in, markets and profits protected. To slightly alter a George Carlin quote -” there’s a swamp people, probably equally occupied by both Republicans and Democrats, and guess what, we’re not in it”.

      60

  • #
    Steve of Cornubia

    And against this background, the UK government has driven up public debt, despite promising fiscal prudence and being putatively ‘conservative’, to its highest level vs GDP since 1961.

    This fact is of course alarming, but it begs the question, who is all that money owed to? Lenders have leverage and influence, through whatever legal contracts the debt is subject to, but also via the always-present threat that a line of credit might suddenly be turned off or called in. There is also of course the power to enforce terms on borrowers that might not be in the borrower’s best interests, especially when the borrower is a politician desperate to stay in power.

    40

  • #
    John Connor II

    If a few men had this kind of power, hypothetically, what would stop them using it?

    Hypothetically, something that produces a “bang” sound. 😎

    50

    • #
      Honk R Smith

      You mean gavels?

      Thanks, I’m here all week.
      Remember to tip your hostes … I mean person capable of hosting.

      50

  • #

    Surely the question that needs to be asked in every “discussion” on current topics is – all of them, any of them – can you give me one aspect of Western civilisation that is not under attack? Anything else you’re just distracted by a bit of the icing. We are focusing on a decorative flower while there’s a whole goddam cake, steadily rising.
    Maybe we could ask the left to stop using the English language? See how they go in Pitjantjara!

    90

  • #
    lyntonio

    Goodness gracious…..
    You don’t buy Senators cheap-
    You buy them cheaply.

    90

  • #
    David Maddison

    Milton Friedman once said of Friedrich Hayek:

    “Over the years, I have again and again asked fellow believers in a free society how they managed to escape the contagion of their collectivist intellectual environment. No name has been mentioned more often as the source of enlightenment than Friedrich Hayek’s.”

    30

  • #
    Custer Van Cleef

    In around 60 years, the West went from gold-backed currencies to money backed by . . What to call it? . . A hope and a prayer?

    How did that happen? There was no mandate at any stage from ‘The People’. Consent wasn’t sought from the voters to do away with gold-backed money. It was never in a manifesto; never campaigned on as a promise. And yet it happened anyway.

    It’s a safe bet the people who benefited most, instigated the change. When Nixon dispensed with the last vestiges of a gold-backed Dollar, they got their final wish.

    They’re not stupid enough to hold money for longer than the moments it takes to buy another Big Asset. Their Banker friends can credit any amount they need into an account to do the transaction. The money doesn’t exist beforehand; it’s just created with a bookkeeping entry. (The BoE explains this part well. Pdf file 0.2MB)

    And then the loan can be repaid with cheaper, devalued money from the future. No problem — it’s YOUR money being devalued — they don’t care.

    So that’s the future we’re allowed: an endless future of continually devalued money so the Super-rich can buy up all the physical assets.

    The Great Reset is closer than you think. There’s a reason they’re softening you up to accept “you’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy”.

    There’s a reason Housing Affordability is the worst it’s ever been in many countries.

    100

  • #
    David Maddison

    Conservatives and fellow rational thinkers need to support anti-woke companies.

    E.g. see this anti-woke ad by Egard Watch Company.

    https://youtu.be/H5XrTxzr2Wg

    (79 sec)

    I’m surprised Goolag/YouTube hasn’t censored it because it doesn’t follow the Official Narrative that men can become women.

    70

  • #
    Vicki

    Maybe that graph indicates a downward trend for BlackRock’s assets.

    20

    • #
      Peter C

      I noticed that.

      The last bar is Q2 2022.

      Does that mean assets up to that the end of the 2nd quarter of 2022 ( in which case BlackRock is likely still growing) or do they mean the results at the end of Q2 averaged over the year?

      20

  • #
    Saighdear

    World leaders headed to Paris summit in push for global debt, climate reform Maybe the images of dying stock in Africa is due, not only to lack of water and foodstuffs IN THAT AREA, but the inadequacies / incompetence of the farmers, speaking as a farmer. If there ain’t no food, do something about it. We / THEY are now living 1/4 of the way thru’ the 21st Century. Haven’t all those Agri Students learnt anything from their trips abroad to Scottish Unis? All just poor management PLUS Laying the tracks for too many Gravy Trains.

    30

  • #
    Ed Zuiderwijk

    A whippersnapper bragging to a woman he fancies letting the cat out of the bag? If

    10

  • #
    DOC

    ‘If a few men had this kind of power, hypothetically, what would stop them using it?’
    TRUMP! Owes them a lot of payback.

    10