Fund managers must break their silence

Fund managers must break their silence While it has been little remarked on and even less analysed, the nature of stock ownership has experienced a sea change since the second world war. Ownership of US stocks by financial institutions has leapt from 8 per cent to 70 per cent. A similar trend has prevailed globally.

US financial institutions – mutual funds, pension funds, endowment funds, and bank trustees – hold more than two-thirds of the shares of virtually every publicly held US corporation, giving them total voting control.

Remarkably, these giant firms have been conspicuous by their absence from exerting significant influence on the companies that they collectively own. “The silence of the funds” has been, well, deafening, writes John C. Bogle.
http://link.ft.com/r/IOCBMM/XHUTEG/8A25BP/L9C86M/Z8BKGG/ID/h?a1=2012&a2=9&a3=19