I know one thing...shareholders control nothing unless they have enough shares for a seat on the board....even then they will not get the final say unless they own 51% of the shares.
The world's economy is basically controlled by a very small group of very rich very influential people....who decide pretty much everything...they can hold countries and governments to ransom just by threatening sanctions or to close down or move their operations somewhere else.
One statistic worth noting is that in the UK less than 7% of the population own more than 84% of the wealth. Whichever way you look at things and whatever political persuasion you are that seems pretty one sided and pretty unequal. I suspect the figures are similar in most other countries.
Re "Money Talks"..... that is true and it also communicates none verbally....it gives the finger gesture to those without.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.cfm?bandID=687727&songID=5238055