Konstantin Kosenko Konstantin Kosenko Text size  The octopus -
that's what Bank of Israel researcher Konstantin Kosenko called
his report on the group of families that controls this country's
economy and the economic concentration this entails. Every
controlling family is like an octopus with limbs in multiple
industries. Cross holdings between octopuses, meanwhile,
increase the power of the concentration.  Kosenko's paper
focuses on the business groups that control the economy and the
effects on individual firms and the economy as a whole.  "The
facts point to a very high level of concentration. We resemble
Korea more than we do Western countries," Kosenko said.  The
Israeli market has a relatively small number of interested
parties in public companies - 1,700 interested parties for 650
publicly held companies. Twenty-two corporate groups control 50%
of the economy, not including Teva. Ten major families control
about 30% of the market. The big groups control 50% of the
financial market and 70% of services a