@SteveRoth i dunno. i think Blackrock's principals also own a lot of shares in nicely cartelized industries, and their incentive to (however tacitly) collude to preserve those rents (already capitalized into valuations) would easily outweigh their incentive to beat the few relevant competitors they might collaborate with. you are presuming a kind of resilience of competitive incentives over other interests that i think experience mostly contradicts.

@SteveRoth (didn't we read something together recently that pointed out price wars are supposed to be the fount of capitalist discipline, but in actual practice price wars are quite rare because principals understand seeking an advantaged position in a negative sum game is in general likely to be a rough strategy?)