The research was apparently aimed at finding means of stabilising capitalism - an impossible dream.  The significance of these findings lie elsewhere.  It isn't about networks of 'conspiracy' either.  Capital is value in motion.  The class power of the capitalist class derives from its accumulation of surplus value by putting money into circulation as capital.  These figures illustrate the concrete effects of the neoliberal phase of capital accumulation, in which the combined structures of imperialism and financialised capitalism have concentrated the control of surplus value, and thus of investment and all the prerogatives and benefits that come from that, in the hands of a very small number of people disproportionately based in Manhattan: that's the Dollar-Wall Street regime.  It is on the basis of that general understanding that one can then drill down into the subject of networking and class cohesion, which is what is meant by 'conspiracy'.  One of the points made in Michael Useem's study, The Inner Circle, is that class-wide perspectives and solidarity among the corporate ruling class is underpinned not just by social cohesion, philanthropy, lobbies and political action committees, but by practises such as the sharing of managers between multiple firms, dispatching promising managers to be non-executive directors on other company boards, etc.  Such practises allow capitalist directors to gain a 'business scan', and collectively form part of what Useem calls the 'interlocking directorate'.  Financial corporations play a particular role as the nerve centres of production, and the centralisation and concentration of capital has been most advanced in this sector.  This means that the 'interlocking directorate' is much more condensed within finance.  So, these findings can be used to expand on previous work to illustrate something about the current distribution of capitalist class power.  It's the 1%, stupid.