The 10 Worst Corporations of 2008

[marmar]

via AlterNet:



The 10 Worst Corporations of 2008

By Robert Weissman, Multinational Monitor. Posted November 24, 2008.

The financial meltdown and economic crisis illustrated that corporations will destroy even themselves in search of profit.



2008 marks the 20th anniversary of Multinational Monitor's annual list of the 10 Worst Corporations of the year.

In the 20 years that we've published our annual list, we've covered corporate villains, scoundrels, criminals and miscreants. We've reported on some really bad stuff - from Exxon's Valdez spill to Union Carbide and Dow's effort to avoid responsibility for the Bhopal disaster; from oil companies coddling dictators (including Chevron and CNPC, both profiled this year) to a bank (Riggs) providing financial services for Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet; from oil and auto companies threatening the future of the planet by blocking efforts to address climate change to duplicitous tobacco companies marketing cigarettes around the world by associating their product with images of freedom, sports, youthful energy and good health.

But we've never had a year like 2008.

The financial crisis first gripping Wall Street and now spreading rapidly throughout the world is, in many ways, emblematic of the worst of the corporate-dominated political and economic system that we aim to expose with our annual 10 Worst list. Here is how.

Improper political influence: Corporations dominate the policy-making process, from city councils to global institutions like the World Trade Organization. Over the last 30 years, and especially in the last decade, Wall Street interests leveraged their political power to remove many of the regulations that had restricted their activities. There are at least a dozen separate and significant examples of this, including the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999, which permitted the merger of banks and investment banks. In a form of corporate civil disobedience, Citibank and Travelers Group merged in 1998 - a move that was illegal at the time, but for which they were given a two-year forbearance - on the assumption that they would be able to force a change in the relevant law. They did, with the help of just-retired (at the time) Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, who went on to an executive position at the newly created Citigroup.

....(snip)....

AIG: Money for Nothing

There's surely no one party responsible for the ongoing global financial crisis.

But if you had to pick a single responsible corporation, there's a very strong case to make for American International Group (AIG).

In September, the Federal Reserve poured $85 billion into the distressed global financial services company. It followed up with $38 billion in October. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/workplace/108321/the_10_worst_corporations_of_2008/

[Lasher]

1. Good article.

Thanks for sharing.

[ellenfl]

2. k&r eom

[MadrasT]

3. Interesting article, thanks...

...but they forgot the federal government. :banghead:

[bvar22]

4. The List (for Dial-Up)

AIG: Money for Nothing

Cargill: Food Profiteers

Chevron: "We can't let little countries screw around with big companies"

Constellation Energy: Nuclear Operators

CNPC: Fueling Violence in Darfur ( Chinese National Petroleum Corp.)

Dole: The Sour Taste of Pineapple

GE: Creative Accounting

Imperial Sugar: 13 Dead

Philip Morris International: Unshackled

Roche: Saving Lives is Not Our Business



If you have the time, AlterNet included lenghty explainations of why these Corps. made their list.
Well worth the read.


http://www.alternet.org/workplace/108321/the_10_worst_corporations_of_2008?page=entire


K&R