John Coates: The Problem of Twelve, Index Funds and Private Equity.

John Coates is the John F. Cogan, Jr. Professor of Law and Economics at Harvard Law School, where he also serves as Deputy Dean and Research Director of the Center on the Legal Profession. Professor Coates served as General Counsel and as Acting Director for the Division of Corporation Finance for the SEC. Before joining Harvard, he was a partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, specializing in financial institutions and M&A. At HLS and at HBS, he teaches corporate governance, M&A, finance, and related topics. In this podcast, we discuss his latest book "The Problem of Twelve: When a Few Financial Institutions Control Everything" where he highlights how a small number of institutions have acquired an outsized influence over the politics and economy of the nation: the Big Four index funds (BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street and Fidelity) and the Big Four of private equity firms (Apollo, Blackstone, Carlysle and KKR). If you like this show, please consider subscribing, leaving a review or sharing this podcast on social media. You can also contribute as a Patron on the link patreon.com/BoardroomGovernancePod or you can subscribe to the Boardroom Governance Newsletter at evanepstein.substack.com This podcast is sponsored by the American College of Governance Counsel.