Newsletter No 5

Date: 30 September 2024

This month on Critical Takes, a close look at the gigantic net flows of corporate profits to just five countries, led of course by the US.

The authors, who are academic researchers, note that part of these flows represent exploitation of “cheap nature” – resource extraction in a context of weak regulation – and “cheap labour”, which speaks for itself. And much of the profit is washed through tax havens.

Coming soon: farmers and corporate power in southern Africa, the problem of taxing profits in global supply chains.

 

Interesting takes in other places:

It’s striking how much ambitious thinking about the power of corporations has been welling up in different places recently.

A must-read from the Balanced Economy Project, IT for Change and People vs Big Tech is this detailed agenda for states to break up the power of Big Tech and promote a digital economy which is open, decentralised and democratic.

Talking of Big Ideas for change, Progressive International offers a programme of action for a new international economic order, based on contributions from across the Global South. A concern about the overweening power of Northern corporations runs through much of this programe, which is striking for marrying far-reaching ambition with numerous concrete proposals, such as replacing investor-state dispute settlement with a binding treaty to limit excessive profit-seeking.

Here are interesting takes from two American thinkers, Matt Bruenig and Zephyr Teachout, on nationalising or breaking up big private companies.

In these uncertain times, vested business interests are trying to turn government policy towards their own priorities. The European Commission’s plans to make the EU more “competitive” have the fingerprints of business lobbyists all over them, says Corporate Observatory Europe. And what lobbyists mainly want is more public subsidies and fewer regulations, as usual.

As a reminder of how convoluted the structures of large corporations can be, here’s a detailed look by Frances Coppola at a struggling privatised water company in the UK. 

If you like what you read on Critical Takes, please share it on social media.

That's it for this month: good luck with your work!

The Editor