BlackRock vs Blackstone? Factions of Asset-Based Capitalism

The literature on asset-based capitalism is growing in depth and specificity. Thus far, however, little attention has been paid to the different business forms that populate the sector and the distinct regulatory regimes they fall under.

In the case of US-based asset markets, legal frameworks in place since the New Deal draw a clear dividing line between the institutional investors who manage assets on behalf of large groups of savers (BlackRock) and fund managers who invest on behalf of themselves and a small group of limited partners in pursuit of capital gains (Blackstone). While the two kinds of asset investment company partner with each other on a regular basis, their tax and regulatory obligations, revenue structures and performance metrics remain radically distinct.

The distinction matters not only for the sake of academic clarity but also as a guide to understanding the political fault lines of our times. In recent years, the partisan affiliations of these two factions of finance capital have shifted and solidified in ways that would have been difficult to anticipate a few decades ago. The current configuration of alliances places one faction of finance capital, consisting of the founders and general partners of private investment funds, firmly on the side of the GOP, while the other faction, extending to mutual and index fund managers such as BlackRock, has become increasingly dependent on the Democrats’ policy agenda.

This arrangement would have been surprising in the 1990s, when mutual funds looked instinctively to Republicans to help advance their economic interests, and at least one faction of the private investment world, Silicon Valley venture capital, was still resolutely attached to the New Democrats.

Melinda Cooper seeks to understand how this factional divide fell into place and what it tells us about the evolving economic and political commitments of Democrats and Republicans respectively.

Speaker Biography:

Melinda Cooper is professor in the School of Sociology at the Australian National University. She is the author of Life as Surplus: Biotechnology and Capitalism in the Neoliberal Era (2008), Family Values: Between Neoliberalism and the New Social Conservatism (2017) and Counterrevolution: Extravagance and Austerity in Public Finance (2024).

Her most recent book Counterrevolution, seeks to unpick the reactionary logic of neoliberal public finance, which mandates crushing austerity in public services alongside extravagant fiscal and monetary supports for asset-based wealth. The book demonstrates how this dual imperative has transformed the DNA of capitalism, turning capital gains into the primary profit form and elevating privately held corporations or partnerships above the classic publicly traded corporation as the institutional core of wealth creation.

How to attend

This event is free and open to all, but registration is required via Eventbrite.

This event is co-hosted with the Department of Sociology, LSE.