The forces behind an economic and political crisis in the makingamp10amp10A 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.amp10amp10The Big Four index funds of Vanguard State Street Fidelity and BlackRock control more than twenty percent of the votes of SampampP 500 companiesa concentration of power thats unprecedented in America. Then thereamp8217s 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.amp10amp10This quiet accumulation in the last few decades represents a dramatic transformation in how the American economy operatesamp8212a sea change that few of us have noticed and all of us need to consider. Harvard law professor John Coates forcefully calls our attention to what is sure to be one of the major political and economic issues of our time.amp10