The Capitalists Who Run the World
An analysis of the relationships between 43,000 transnational corporations has identified a relatively small group of companies, mainly banks, with disproportionate power over the global economy. The study by complex systems theorists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology is the first to go beyond ideology to empirically identify such a network of power. It combines the mathematics long used to model natural systems with comprehensive corporate data to map ownership among the world's transnational corporations (TNCs).
Little House on the Prairie
There is an address in Cheyenne, Wyoming -- 2710 Thomes Avenue -- where 2,000 companies are based. But it is not a skyscraper. Or even an office complex. It is a basic, 1,700-square-foot brick house. And it is the subject of an investigative report by Reuters called "A Little House of Secrets on the Great Plains." One of the reporters on the project, Brian Grow, says it looks like a typical home -- until you go inside. "Lo and behold, the corporate suites for the companies that are registered at that address are in fact cubbyhole mailboxes, floor to ceiling in the main room," Grow tells Guy Raz, host of All Things Considered.
http://www.npr.org/2011/07/02/137573513/shell-game-2-000-firms-based-in-one-simple-house
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The ABCD Four
The world's four largest grain traders, responsible for the vast majority of global corn, soya, and wheat trading and processing, have been accused of large-scale tax evasion in a landmark series of cases being brought against them by the Argentinian government. With the global food system and who controls it under intense scrutiny because of record prices, the legal battle with the "ABCD four," as they are known, has taken on heightened significance. Ricardo Echegaray, director of Argentina's revenue and customs service, Afip, has given a detailed account of the charges his department is bringing against ADM, Bunge, Cargill, and Louis Dreyfus. "These companies have gone into criminality," Echegaray said. "2008 was when agricultural commodities prices spiked and was the best year for them in prices, yet we could see that the companies with the biggest sales showed very little profit in this country." Echegaray said he had evidence from his detailed inquiry that all four traders had submitted false declarations of sales and routed profits through tax havens or their headquarters, in contravention of Argentinian tax law. He also alleged they had on occasion used phantom firms to buy grain. He further alleged that they had inflated costs in Argentina to reduce taxable profits or claim tax credits there.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/jun/01/argentina-accuses-grain-traders-tax-evasion/print
Corporations free of human rights
A US federal appeals court has ruled US corporations can no longer be sued for human rights violations abroad under the longstanding Alien Tort Statute. The Second US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Alien tort claims can only be brought against individuals, not corporations. The ruling dismissed a lawsuit accusing the oil giant Royal Dutch Shell of complicity in the murder and torture of Nigerian activists, including Ken Saro-Wiwa. Judge Pierre Leval criticized the ruling, writing, "The majority opinion deals a substantial blow to international law and its undertaking to protect fundamental human rights. So long as they incorporate, businesses will now be free to trade in or exploit slaves, employ mercenary armies to do dirty work for despots, perform genocides or operate torture prisons for a despot’s political opponents, or engage in piracy -- all without civil liability to victims."
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/29/headlines/court_exempts_corporations_from_alien_tort_law
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