Corporate Predators: The Hunt for Mega-Profits and the Attack on Democracy

by Russell Mokhiber, Robert Weissman

Of the world's biggest 100 economies, 51 are corporations, not countries. As the most powerful institution of our time, the multinational corporation dominates not only global economics, but politics and culture as well. But the mechanisms of corporate control and the details of corporate abuses have remained largely hidden from public perception-until now. In this compelling collection of columns, investigative journalists Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman critique corporate power from a relentlessly human perspective. While mainstream media cheerfully laud big business's record profits, Mokhiber and Weissman ask the real questions-Where is profit coming from? When working Americans' incomes have dropped dramatically since 1980, while salaries of corporate CEOs have risen 500 percent in the same period, is the economy really booming? Whose economy is this, anyway? From union-busting to food irradiation, from faulty air bags that kill but are left on the market anyway to judges who take bribes, from the IMF to oil companies-wherever corporate crime strikes, Mokhiber and Weissman are there, covering an amazing range of issues, to sound the alarm and call people to action.

Genres: Politics

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

BRIEF ESSAYS ATTACKING CORPORATE DOMINANCE AND CRIME

Russell Mokhiber is the editor of Corporate Crime Reporter, and the author of 'Corporate Crime and Violence: Big Business Power and the Abuse of the Public Trust.' Robert Weissman is editor of Multinational Monitor. He and Robert Weissman also collaborated on 'On the Rampage: Corporate Predators and the Destruction of Democracy.' This book is a series of brief articles.

They wrote, "today, no matter what the topic... corporate crime and violence is left out of the conversation by corporatist media elites and politicians. This is a prescription for societal rot. As poor Americans are driven to prison in record numbers for minor drug crimes and petty burglary, wealthy Americans and their corporations elude justice for major criminal acts like pollution, corruption, and ripping off the government." (Pg. 10)

They suggest, "One major reason why corporate crime gets little attention from reporters, academics and government officials has little to do with complexity, and more to do with the reality of corporate power. Big institutions have marinated our formerly independent institutions in corporate cash and influence. Why should reporters tackle tough issues of corporate power and crime when such a foray might lead to loss of job, income and family support?" (Pg. 27) Later, they observe, "When the issue of crime is raised [on TV], the host keeps the focus exclusively on street crime... [and] rarely allows discussion of corporate domination of American culture, bribery, corruption or economic concentration in the agribusiness industry---all topics that would not make the corporate criminal sponsor of the show happy." (Pg. 138)

They argue, "Big Business has made IMF expansion a priority because, for them, the IMF is a multi-pronged welfare machine. First, the IMF bails out big banks and foreign investors when they make bad loans in developing countries---investments that are understood to be risky at the time they were made, and earn more as a result... Second, the IMF forces poor countries to discard economic policies and regulations that limit the power of domestic and especially foreign corporations. That makes it easier for U.S.... companies to benefit from low wages and other perks---like weak environmental regulations---of operating in much of the developing world." (Pg. 75)

They state, "Antitrust policy is the main tool available to combat excessive concentration of economic power, and the correlative centralization of political power. But the federal cops on the antitrust enforcement beat have done little more than kick back and drink coffee and eat donuts for the last decade and a half." (Pg. 120)

They say, "Skyrocketing CEO pay does not represent a massive expansion of the economic pie from which all corporate stakeholders are benefiting. While executive pay increases partly reflect rising returns to shareholders, workers have received almost none of the benefits showered on those at the top... [and reflects] a single reality: the diminished power of organized labor." (Pg. 167)

This is a provocative, argumentative, and "cantankerous" collection of writings that will be of interest mostly to progressives.

[Kristina Coop-a-Loop · Rating 3 out of 5]

Information was dated, but I'm sure not much has changed. Corporations' hunt for mega profits is more important than democracy, the environment, individual rights, etc. Money and power are the twin gods that corporations worship--that will never change.