If you like a good conspiracy theory then you'll love the ones surrounding the tiny organisation that owns "all the wealth in the USA"
From Trading Places to Wall Street, Hollywood has long been fascinated with multi-billion dollar secret sleazy dealings.
But, despite their worth, New York-based financial institution Cede and Company has largely kept a relatively low profile with a dozen directors and no more than a half dozen employees.
However, despite its diminutive size the powerful organisation holds, according to some reports, as much as $54 trillion in assets.
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This staggering figure has been reached because the firm actually owns 83% of all issued stocks in the United States.
Technically private investors DON'T own the stock they think they own, but rather have contractual rights that are part of a complex chain of rights ending up at Cede and Company.
A complex system of interlocking bodies, such as The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, the National Securities Clearing Corporation and the Fixed Income Clearing Corporation oversee all stock trading in the US. They all come under the umbrella of Cede.
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The multi-trillion dollar secret works like this: The Depository Trust Company is a private bank for securities. Every other financial organisation in the US, bankers and brokerage houses, is obliged to secure membership with DTC.
Like the Federal Reserve, DTC is a private company entrusted with national responsibility. It processes all stock and paper securities for every US bank and brokerage house.
Cede technically owns nearly all of the publicly issued stock in the United States. So private investors don’t own the stock they think they own. Instead they have contractual rights that are part of a complex chain of rights ending up at Cede and Company.
It sounds dry and academic, but it impacts every American. And as long as the USA remains the preeminent economic power on Earth, it affects the rest of us too.
The Depository Trust Company absolutely controls every paper asset transaction in America and they physically hold the majority of stock and bond certificates in their name.
Very few people hold genuine stock ownership certificates. Most trust their brokers to do that for them.
And many Americans (who unlike Brits depend on private finance for all of their retirement and health needs) are concerned that these precious stocks could at any moment ‘vanish’ overnight to service the country’s staggering national debt.
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation is notoriously publicity-shy, but the DTC’s Jim McNeff spoke to financial journalist Anthony Wayne.
Explaining to Wayne how infallible the DTC’s governance of the US stock market was, he said DTC's first controlled test was on Black Monday.
"There were 535million transactions on Monday, and 400million transactions on Tuesday," he said.
"DTC cleared every transaction without a single glitch!"
Wayne’s conclusion from that interview was that Black Monday – a colossal financial downturn that ruined many Americans – was a controlled test. That it was a deliberately manipulated disaster for the benefit of the DTC. This has never been proven though.
Meanwhile, the internet has drawn up its own conclusions to the power the company wields.
One Reddit user said: "We belong to Cede. I can't believe we've found the Holy Grail of the conspiracy world. These guys' owners own it all. There's probably a version of Cede & Co for every country and it's run by the same people. We can chop off their biggest limb right now."
Another said: "The important question, who owns Cede?"
A third user added: "Pretty crazy how its called Cede….because that is exactly what we did – cede control of the stock market to this company."
While a fourth said: "This is the real Illuminati, if one really exists."
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