Not long ago, the 200 largest global transnational companies accounted for 29% of world economic activity. Africa and Latin America are not on that list and Asian tigers account for less than 1%.
Roberto F. Campos
We now accept the very well-known saying, “the rich are increasingly rich?” Nowadays a handful of companies are granted global economic power; all are from first world countries and in the hands of only a few people.
When several economists predicted a halt to company mergers, that is what happened, benefiting a small financial and commercial elite, none of which came from the South.
Specialists consider that topic to be a globalisation of corporations, which are headed by 500 high-value companies, according to consultancy firm surveys and specialist media, which take into account the Forbes ranking.
Recognised studies reflect statistics that reinforce this imperial economics. An example of this is the fact that almost 48% of the biggest companies and banks in the world are concentrated in the United States.
In this micro world, 30% are in Europe and 10% in Japan, therefore 90% of major corporations with power over the industry sector, banks and businesses are American, European and Japanese.
The biggest drivers
Expert records show that that the largest business is the Wal-Mart retail chain, which has a GDP larger than Norway, Saudi Arabia and Austria. Next on the list is British Petroleum (PB), followed by Exxon, Mobil, Shell, General Motors, Daimler Chrysler, Toyota Motor, Ford Motor, General Electric, Total and Chevron; many are the fruit of mergers.
Following the phenomena of those unions is the wish to avoid losses at the cost of measures such as job cuts, plant closure, asset sales and business reorganisation.
That leads to a corresponding negative social impact in large sectors of the labour markets. Each one of the large businesses mentioned is itself larger than the economies of Portugal, Israel, Ireland or New Zealand. Among the 100 biggest businesses of the world, supermarkets such as Carrefour, Home Depot, Metro and Royal Ahold feature, as well as food producers such as Nestlé and the Altria Group (belonging to Kraft Foods and Phillip Morris).
Financial groups are also on the list, such as Citigroup (the biggest bank in the United States), ING and HSBC, or, fashionable and sophisticated technology companies such as IBM, Siemens, Hitachi, Hewlet Packard, Samsung and Sony.
Studies show that 5 of the 10 largest banks are American, as well as 6 of the 10 pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, four of the 10 telecommunication companies and 7 of the main information technology companies.
With regard to oil – black gold – 4 of the 10 main businesses are American and 9 of the 10 software firms. Only in insurance do Europeans stand out, with 5 of the main 10 spots.
The geography of world economics is clearly tipped to one side of the scales.
With regard to food, the ETC Group report and Oligopholy Inc., with surveys on agriculture, food and pharmaceuticals, reflect a jump in the 10 biggest seedling companies, from a third to half of global control.
In food and drink, Nestlé has the power, followed by Archer Daniel Midlands, Altria, PepsiCo, Unilever, Tyson Foods, Cargill, Coca-Cola, Mars and Danone, which together control 24% of the market.
Those firms hoard 36% of the earnings of the 100 biggest businesses of their kind. It can therefore be concluded that the list is long in terms of controlled goods and short regarding the names of businesses, groups and families.
Although this data varies from year to year, what does not differ is the ratio between rich and poor, and for many experts, new free trade agreements simply bolster those statistics. (PL)
Photos: Pixabay – (Translated by Abaigh Wheatley)
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