The forces behind an economic and political crisis in the makingampamp10ampamp10A problem of twelve arises when a small number of institutions acquire the means to exert outsized influence over the politics and economy of a nation.ampamp10ampamp10The Big Four index funds of Vanguard State Street Fidelity and BlackRock control more than twenty percent of the votes of SampampampP 500 companiesa concentration of power thats unprecedented in America. Then thereampamp8217s the rise of private equity funds such as the Big Four of Apollo Blackstone Carlyle and KKR which has amassed 2.7 trillion of assets and are eroding the legitimacy and accountability of American capitalism not by controlling public companies but by taking them over entirely and removing them from public discourse and public scrutiny.ampamp10ampamp10This quiet accumulation in the last few decades represents a dramatic transformation in how the American economy operatesampamp8212a sea change that few of us have noticed and all of us need to consider.