In the early 2000's Australian banks owned a lot of real estate. Their branches, and the big CBD office towers, possibly much more that I didn't research. They began to sell them all, primarily to super funds (Private pensions) with the guarantee they would lease them back for 5 years and more.
They had all the typical propaganda out there as to why this was a great idea, good for their share hodlers, a windfall for the Super Funds. By the turn of the decade half the branches were closed and there had been a collapse in commercial RE prices. Then of course is the value of those office towers, all built of reinforced concrete, all heading for demolition in the decades ahead.
What does these Banks own now? Basically their mortgages and through their investment arms a lot of shares, shares in all manner of corporations. It's this inter-ownership of shares that allows them to control the corporations, they all own shares in each others corps, it's one big club but some entity at the top is holding the strings.
The real evidence for this is the way nations in the West move in lockstep. Interest rates all go up and down together, privatization initiatives came in across the globe all at the same time, as well as the push for private pensions, private health care, even gun control measures, and VAT, GST type taxes. You may think you are electing a government that is specifically concerned with your nation but the evidence is that all the major moves they make are not in your favor and mirror moves made in all the other OECD's.
Look at mass immigration, all into western nations, they are all on board because they are being directed to do so and not by the people who elected them. There are a few exceptions, Switzerland (the bankers home base) Japan, a law unto itself, but the vast majority of western nations all dance to the same song.
Punters think they are clever, selecting their investments wisely, choosing this bank over another, but the simple truth is they are just playing in a corner of the big casino that is controlled by these supranational entities. Call these entities the money powers, the men behind the curtain, but when they decide to pull the rug nothing in the conventional money system will be safe.
Quotation by Abraham Lincoln:
The money powers prey upon the nation in times of peace and conspire against it in times of adversity. The banking powers are more despotic than a monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. They denounce as public enemies all who question their methods or throw light upon their crimes. I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me and the bankers in the rear. Of the two, the one at my rear is my greatest foe.