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Traditionally, American conglomerates flourish in high-interest-rate environments, such that the money emitted by profitable verticals can be used to subsidize

Traditionally, American conglomerates flourish in high-interest-rate environments, such that the money emitted by profitable verticals can be used to subsidize growing/unprofitable verticals, all beneath a single centralized authority which overtly acknowledges its legal and financial control of the subsidiaries. Conversely, when money is cheap, you can just incorporate all your verticals as freestanding entities (aka "startups"), often beneath a decentralized control structure (aka "cabal of venture capitalists who collude with one another") through which you maintain influence over them without incurring any of the unpleasant legal ramifications caused by explicitly linking the verticals together in the eyes of the law. You can do this latter decentralization thing since you're freed from the frequent need to move money between verticals, and can instead just pump money into them (if necessary) every year or two (aka "funding rounds"). However, I have no clue how Asia works.

Intermernet 8y ago
Look up "Mitsubishi Group" on Wikipedia for some interesting insights into how "a decentralized control structure" works. I suspect that this sort of decentralisation is common not just in Japan, but throughout most large players in the global economy. The differences will mostly arise from how much the "home market" of any of these groups (cabals) will care for, or acknowledge antitrust practices. Other good examples are Unilever, Google, Apple, Freeport McMoran, Tata Group etc. Once you bring China into the equation it becomes more difficult to trace the global connections due to massive state ownership, but I'd be surprised if they didn’t have interests in many global conglomerates. This isn't really conspiracy theory, this is just how a global economy is evolving amidst multiple conflicting interests and regulatory bodies.

Intermernet 8y ago

Look up "Mitsubishi Group" on Wikipedia for some interesting insights into how "a decentralized control structure" works. I suspect that this sort of decentralisation is common not just in Japan, but throughout most large players in the global economy. The differences will mostly arise from how much the "home market" of any of these groups (cabals) will care for, or acknowledge antitrust practices. Other good examples are Unilever, Google, Apple, Freeport McMoran, Tata Group etc. Once you bring China into the equation it becomes more difficult to trace the global connections due to massive state ownership, but I'd be surprised if they didn’t have interests in many global conglomerates. This isn't really conspiracy theory, this is just how a global economy is evolving amidst multiple conflicting interests and regulatory bodies.