Larry Fink says today’s economic anxiety stems from people increasingly feeling like capitalism isn’t working for them

In just weeks, Wall Street has gone from optimistically waving off the U.S. and Israel’s strikes on Iran as a short-term blip to the more pessimistic assumption that the chaos in the Middle East could have long-term ramifications.Likewise, consumers—already sensitive to the cost of living—are struggling with yet another affordability issue as oil and gas prices shot up after supply from the region was restricted.As Larry Fink wrote in his annual letter to shareholders today: “We are living through a period where things that would’ve defined a decade have become routine: wars with global repercussions, trillion-dollar companies, a fundamental reordering of international trade, and the advent of the most significant technology since, at least, the computer.”

Frankly, it’s been hard to keep up—and the BlackRock CEO wrote that the drama and uncertainty threatened by day-to-day headlines may be obscuring longer-term trends.

Fink, worth $1.3 billion according to Forbes, said that the vast majority of wealth historically has flowed to people who owned assets, as opposed to those who earned their money by working. Since 1989, he observed, a dollar invested in the U.S. stock market has ballooned at 15 times the value of a dollar tied to median wages. This wealth effect will likely be the same in the age of AI, with those wealthy enough to invest in the........

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