Word: Big Three Part of Speech: name 1. The World War II military alliance consisting of the Soviet Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Labels: UK 2. The World War II military alliance consisting of the Soviet Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Labels: UK 3. Any group of three major or largest corporations in a given industry, especially when such a small group has oligopoly or near-oligopoly. Example: But over the last two generations, fund management has institutionalized and industrialized. It grew bigger to provide pensions to fast-growing postwar populations, and adopted passive management as the most effective way to do this. […] The logic behind these moves was clear, but it led to a problem. Huge blocs of shares were being held by a few huge indexing companies — led by the Big Three of BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street — who had no intention to sell them and therefore no means to discipline the managers. But while they were “passive” in the sense that they took no view on which companies to buy or sell, it was plainly in the best interests of their ultimate clients for them to be active stewards, stopping managers from misbehaving. The clients still wanted the companies they owned via the funds to be run for their benefit. Unless passive managers were active stewards of the companies in their funds, the whole concept of shareholder capitalism would be weakened. But corporate governance is expensive, and passive managers’ raison d’etre is containing costs. […] People who hold funds tracking the S&P 500, the most popular index, effectively have tiny holdings in 500 different companies; are they really going to go through all the proxy documents and vote on every issue? And do they really want this responsibility? It’s hard to imagine that they will. This was a problem that could be seen coming a long way away. In 2012, the economist John Kay produced a report on long-term investment for the UK’s then-Conservative government, arguing that big investors should be “encouraged to act collectively.” His report argued for the formal creation of an Investors’ Forum, a “vehicle for collective analysis and action in which the major players would be the principal asset managers.” That never happened formally. But it virtually came to pass organically through the power of the Big Three passive managers and the Big Two proxy advisers [Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis]. Without some such institution, Kay warned, modern investment management was incapable of acting as owners who would discipline company executives and boards. 4. Any group of three major or largest corporations in a given industry, especially when such a small group has oligopoly or near-oligopoly. Labels: US 5. Any group of three major or largest corporations in a given industry, especially when such a small group has oligopoly or near-oligopoly. Labels: US, historical 6. Any group of three major or largest corporations in a given industry, especially when such a small group has oligopoly or near-oligopoly. Labels: US 7. China, Japan, and Korea, three major Asian economies. 8. The deadlift, squat and benchpress. Example: The Squat, Deadlift, and Bench Press are widely accepted to be the ‘Big Three’ powerlifting exercises by strength and conditioning experts. 9. Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, and Rafael Nadal, each considered to be among the greatest tennis players of all time. 10. Naruto, One Piece, and Bleach, each considered to be the most influential shonen manga of the 2000s.