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Power, Inc.: The Epic Rivalry Between Big Business and Government- —and the Reckoning That Lies Ahead, by David Rothkopf
Free PDF Power, Inc.: The Epic Rivalry Between Big Business and Government- —and the Reckoning That Lies Ahead, by David Rothkopf
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The world's largest company, Wal-Mart Stores, has revenues higher than the GDP of all but twenty-five of the world's countries. Its employees outnumber the populations of almost a hundred nations. The world's largest asset manager, a secretive New York company called Black Rock, controls assets greater than the national reserves of any country on the planet. A private philanthropy, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, spends as much worldwide on health care as the World Health Organization.
The rise of private power may be the most important and least understood trend of our time. David Rothkopf provides a fresh, timely look at how we have reached a point where thousands of companies have greater power than all but a handful of states. Beginning with the story of an inquisitive Swedish goat wandering off from his master and inadvertently triggering the birth of the oldest company still in existence, Power, Inc. follows the rise and fall of kings and empires, the making of great fortunes, and the chaos of bloody revolutions. A fast-paced tale in which champions of liberty are revealed to be paid pamphleteers of moneyed interests and greedy scoundrels trigger changes that lift billions from deprivation, Power, Inc. traces the bruising jockeying for influence right up to today's financial crises, growing inequality, broken international system, and battles over the proper role of government and markets.
Rothkopf argues that these recent developments, coupled with the rise of powers like China and India, may not lead to the triumph of American capitalism that was celebrated just a few years ago. Instead, he considers an unexpected scenario, a contest among competing capitalisms offering different visions for how the world should work, a global ideological struggle in which European and Asian models may have advantages. An important look at the power struggle that is defining our times, Power, Inc. also offers critical insights into how to navigate the tumultuous years ahead.
- Sales Rank: #1147456 in Books
- Published on: 2012-02-28
- Released on: 2012-02-28
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.36" h x 1.48" w x 6.43" l, 1.45 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 448 pages
Review
What is the appropriate balance between the market and the state in providing both opportunities and protections for its citizens?. . . For an idea of why the major economies have yet to converge around an answer, a brilliant, ambitious new book provides penetrating insights...Rothkopf's basic premise is that nation states, most of them at least, cannot make sovereign decisions about the financial, economic and global policies their citizens require without contending with the enormous market power of large global businesses whose corporate profit and autonomy far outstrips most national GDPs. . .Rothkopf's message is especially relevant for the United States, where the market fundamentalism of the 1990s fed a deregulation frenzy of explosive consequences for the decay of today's middle class, and of the country's infrastructure and human capital. . . Decades before the Occupy Wall Street movement, the slogan 'Capitalism with a Human Face' captured the aspirations of the socially-minded. Last weekend's IMF and World Bank meetings showed the many faces of Rothkopf's competing capitalisms, democratic countries nearly all of them. Yet none seemed very happy. Is the gloom permanent? The 800 years of history covered in this courageous, learned, and timely book suggests that we still have a choice. (Julia Sweig, Council on Foreign Relations)
In his new book, Power, Inc., David Rothkopf sounds an alarm. He argues that thousands of private actors who he calls "super citizens" now hold greater power than most countries in the world. He notes, for instance, that corporations have grown to the point where roughly the richest two thousand are more influential than 70-80 percent of the world's nations. Walmart, for example, has revenues higher than the GDP of all but 25 nations. He correctly notes that these gargantuan players now prevent us from dealing with the pressing issues of our day such as global warming, growing economic inequality and embracing cleaner forms of energy. He examines watershed years of yore, such as 1288, when the world's first stock certificate was issued to Sweden's Stora, the world's oldest corporation, now a huge multinational. The point he is making is that the struggle between private and corporate power is hardly a new phenomenon. . . The story comes to life when he hones in on events which took place in the United States starting at the end of the 19th century. He recounts the time when JP Morgan literally rescued the United States government from bankruptcy in 1896. He also tells the sorry story of how corporations gained legal protections and rights in the Supreme Court starting in 1886 and ending most recently with the infamous Citizens United case in 2010. In Rothkopf's view, the world has shifted from a 'battle between capitalism and Communism to something even more complex: a battle between differing forms of capitalism in which the distinction between each is in the relative role of each is in the relative role and responsibilities of public and private sectors.' The extremes of both Soviet communism and free-market financial excesses have been discredited. American capitalism initially triumphed but has since receded: and competition between different capitalisms will continue. (Roy Ulrich, The Huffington Post)
In his new book, Power, Inc.: The Epic Rivalry Between Big Business and Government--and the Reckoning that Lies Ahead (Viking), David Rothkopf explains how the United States, once viewed as the model for a mixed-market economy, is increasingly held captive by the avarice of private interests. Power, Inc. is an undeniably ambitious book--attempting to put the current U.S. situation into a global and historical context. . . The takeaway is profound: that relations between the state and competing interests (be it church or private enterprise) have always been strained, yet the state--and its power to enforce the fundamental social contract it has with its citizens--has never been weaker. Rothkopf is a realist at heart. He recognizes that some form of capitalism is the only way forward--be it a more activist capitalism (being pushed by the emerging powers of India and Brazil), the welfare-state capitalism of northern Europe, or what he calls the "entrepreneurial small-market" capitalism of countries like Singapore and Israel. But for the first time in more than a century, Rothkopf argues, it will not be the Americans leading the way. (Matt O'Grady, Canadian Business)
In his new book, Power, Inc., David Rothkopf offers a provocative analysis of the push-pull between big business and big government. He says the rift has gone far past simplistic political rhetoric to a larger battle: pitting American capitalism against other forms of capitalism that have emerged on the world's stage in the past decade or so. (Maureen Mackey, The Fiscal Times)
Rothkopf's book is astonishingly ambitious. It traces the relationship between state and market--a relationship that, he says, has succeeded the relationship between church and state as the dominant conflict in societies--from the thirteenth century to the present. During the past thirty years, he says, we've adopted the view that politics and markets were actually allied: freedom in one realm meant freedom in the other. The result of this idea, along with the increasing influence of business within both political parties, was a series of policies that deregulated national currencies and banking systems and enabled the globalized economy of the Superclass. Meanwhile, the overwhelming majority of people still live in specific places and depend on local and national governments for social benefits, beginning with items as basic as stable currencies. Globalization, in its present form, strengthens a cadre of very large businesses that Rothkopf calls 'supercitizens,' and diminishes government, which is becoming, in his nice phrase, 'too small to succeed.'… he makes it clear that he thinks that political decisions created the present situation and that only different political decisions will alleviate it. (Nicholas Lemann, The New Yorker)
The problem for the right in Britain and its big brother in the US is that, after 30 years of the conservative revolution, it is now wedded to the premodern view that risks in a market economy and society should be run as individualistically as possible… But, as a growing number of us are arguing - David Rothkopf, editor of Foreign Policy and author of the recently published Power, Inc is but the latest to sign up - the propositions ignore reality…This is a worldwide debate, as Rothkopf outlines, a bid to define what 21st-century capitalism could be. (Will Hutton, The Guardian)
A sharp rebuke of free markets run amok and a loud call for rebalancing public needs and corporate interests. (Greg Hanscom, Grist)
An enlightening account. (Mary Whaley, Booklist Review)
Rothkopf…uses a wide-angle lens to examine the relation between public and private power…[He] delivers a lively, accessible treatment of a multifaceted, complex subject. (Kirkus Starred Review)
This should be read by serious students of politics, economics, or business and will be of interest to anyone invested in our country's economic history and, especially, future. (Bonnie A. Tollefson, Library Journal)
The story of Kare the Goat…serves as a kind of creation myth for David Rothkopf's sprawling new book, Power, Inc. Stora Kopparberg, the business established in 1288 to mine for copper in the hills above Falun (Sweden), still exists making it the "oldest continuously operating corporation in the world." Rothkopf argues that the evolution of Stora from a scrappy, goat-founded outfit to a $20 billion multinational business is emblematic of a tectonic shift in international relations, in which global corporations today wield greater power than all but a handful of nation-states. Rothkopf is an energetic story-teller...the story of Stora is fascinating…The most eye-popping sections of Power, Inc., detail how decolonization, globalization and financial deregulation have subverted the prerogatives states have traditionally reserved for themselves. (Romesh Ratnesar, Bloomberg Businessweek)
As David Rothkopf points out in his incisive and timely new book, Power Inc, the pendulum has swung sharply from public to corporate in the last generation. That has changed the character of the US economy. 'In the past there was a tight connection between economic growth leading to jobs creation, which in turn led to broad wealth creation,' Mr Rothkopf says. 'Those links no longer seem to work.' (Edward Luce, Financial Times)
David Rothkopf…has a smart new book out, entitled Power, Inc., about the epic rivalry between big business and government that captures, in many ways, what the 2012 election should be about … the future of 'capitalism' and whether it will be shaped in America or somewhere else. Rothkopf argues that while for much of the 20th century the great struggle on the world stage was between capitalism and communism, which capitalism won, the great struggle in the 21st century will be about which version of capitalism will win, which one will prove the most effective at generating growth and become the most emulated. Rothkopf's view, which I share, is that the thing others have most admired and tried to emulate about American capitalism is precisely what we've been ignoring: America's success for over 200 years was largely due to its healthy, balanced public-private partnership. (Thomas Friedman, New York Times)
It would be hard to find a timelier book than Power, Inc. Where we draw the line between public and private power will shape the twenty-first century as the divide between communism and capitalism shaped the twentieth. The full dimensions of that struggle are just beginning to emerge, but David Rothkopf, as usual, is ahead of the curve with a provocative, insightful book that is easy to read and hard to put down. (Anne-Marie Slaughter, Bert G. Kerstetter '66 University Professor of Politics and International Affairs. Princeton University)
Power and money make the world go around. Eras are defined by how they are intertwined. David Rothkopf's important book chronicles the history of the power money nexus and defines where we are and where we may be going. This book deserves much discussion in both the world's national and financial capitals. (Lawrence H. Summers, Charles W. Eliot University Professor, Harvard University, and former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury)
The frontier between governments and markets is constantly shifting. Focusing on this contested border, David Rothkopf vividly describes the parallel rise of the modern nation-state and the modern corporation. In an age of globalization, Rothkopf argues, this frontier urgently needs to be redrawn. Readers, whatever their views on this important debate, will be compelled to rethink today's economic travails and reassess expectations for tomorrow. (Daniel Yergin, author of The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World)
David Rothkopf is a deep thinker and a fine writer. We now know that he is also an astute and creative historian. Power, Inc. tells an important story: how once-weak corporations have evolved into the muscular institutions that are now stronger than many countries--and have been grotesquely enabled in the United States by Citizens United. It's also chock full of fascinating historical tidbits. Who knew that the copper industry may have begun with a goat? Read it to be informed and delighted. (Alan S. Blinder, former Vice Chairman, U.S. Federal Reserve, and Gordon S. Rentschler Memorial Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, Princeton University)
At a time when our political debate lacks clarity and our economic model is floundering, David Rothkopf brings a compelling vision to the table, both about the challenges that we face and about what the future might look like. It is based on his own experience in business and government and on a remarkably detailed sense of history. He describes how the complex relationship between private and public interest has evolved since the time of Sweden's first king, and how that relationship at least in part explains our current malaise. Rothkopf employs a brilliant use of history to identify the channels that could, in the end, lead to a better way forward. (Carol Graham, Senior Fellow and Charles Robinson Chair, The Brookings Institution, and author of The Pursuit of Happiness: An Economy of Well-Being)
About the Author
David Rothkopf is the internationally acclaimed author of Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making and Running the World: The Inside Story of the National Security Council and the Architects of American Power. He is the president and chief executive of Garten Rothkopf, an international advisory firm, and a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and CEO and Editor-at-Large of the FP Group, publishers of Foreign Policy Magazine.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
1 The Goat with the Red Horns
In the abyss itself lie in wild confusion—pell-mell—stones, slag and scoria, and an eternal, stupefying sulphurous vapour rises from the depths, as if the hell-broth, whose reek poisons and kills all the green gladsomeness of nature, were being brewed down below. One would think this was where Dante went down and saw the Inferno, with all its horror and immitigable pain.
—E.T.A. Hoffmann, “The Mines of Falun”
The Past, Present, and Future of the Power Struggle That Defines Our Times
Throughout the writing of this book, I have had an image in my mind. It is of one of those charts showing the evolution of mankind. You know the type: they begin with an ape, heavy-browed, bent over, walking on all fours. They end with us, Homo sapiens, walking upright and looking somewhat brighter. The chart in my imagination however, illustrates another side of the story of human evolution. Rather than presenting us from a purely biological perspective—from the point of view of where, for example, in our family trees we picked up those useful opposable thumbs or the ability to digest frozen yogurt—it is describing a much more recent, still-unfolding aspect of our collective development. The imagined diagram, like this book, focuses on stages of our social evolution. More specifically, it describes the evolution of some of the most important organizations by which we bring order and productivity to our societies. As it happens, these are also the mechanisms by which power is distributed and wielded, by which rules are formulated and enforced, by which human collaborations and conflicts are facilitated.
Studying these organizations closely, you begin to wonder whether they themselves are actually the alpha organisms on the planet, the life forms that rule here on earth and of which we individuals make up only the temporary and replaceable working parts—much like the giant interconnected families of Armillaria ostoyae, also known as honey mushrooms, can grow to cover thousands of acres and live for millennia. A mushroom here or there gets lopped off, tossed into a salad, or eaten by some charming woodland critter, but the rest of the organism goes on about its business, sucking the water and nutrients out of great forests of trees that tower above the largely unseen fungus but that ultimately succumb to Armillaria’s superior organization.
After all, we individual human beings are fragile, small, and—at least for the moment—not even capable of reproducing while acting alone. Our time here is limited, and unsurprisingly, this unfortunate twist in the rules of nature has weighed heavily on us. Almost all human societies have cooked up higher powers that we define as higher first and foremost because they are immortal. And one of the things that distinguish us from the organizations we have created to live within is that they too are designed to be immortal, to outlast us and thus in some important respects to be above us like the gods themselves … or like large, enduring fungal networks.
In my imagined chart, the great-ape phase of evolution is the family, the basic social building block of every stage of human civilization. Then comes the tribe, and then the village. After that we see the development of ever larger, stronger, more complex products of organizational evolution until we reach one of those forks in the road, a little bit like the one that occurred during the period during which Neanderthals and Homo sapiens lived simultaneously. Grappling with the choice we face at that crossroads is where we have been these past few hundred years. On the one hand, there is an organizational approach that often seems to have much in common with the Neanderthals, better suited to the past but still strong and with much to recommend it. At the same time, we can see the irreversible rise of another one, not fully formed perhaps, suggesting several evolutionary steps to come, but clearly better suited to the global environment that is developing and changing around it.
On this timeline, however, the Neanderthals are national governments (this illustration was not created, I should hasten to say, because governments are on the verge of extinction, but rather because they are not as well suited to thrive in their current environment as some of their contemporaries on the organizational evolutionary chart), and the Homo sapiens, the ones that seem to have the evolutionary edge, are corporations—or at least global structures that are a lot more like multinational companies than they are like the traditional images of countries that we have today. No doubt some might say this is comparing humans to apes—apples and oranges as primates go—evolutionary cousins but clearly not the same species. But tell that to the companies and the governments. They have been locked in a power struggle with each other since the earliest days that companies were ushered into being by sovereigns who used them for economic purposes. They are different, but they are often compelled to occupy the same space. They are different, but in order to survive, it may well be that each must become more like the other. They are different, but they are both facing major evolutionary hurdles that must be addressed if they are to continue to exist in a rapidly changing international environment.
Also, as with the story of human evolution, this one is not without controversy. Just as the idea that men descended from the same ancient grandma as lemurs and chimps is offensive to those who take the Bible as literal truth, so too is the idea that somehow corporations are usurping the traditional place of countries on the international stage, thus upsetting some deeply ingrained, very nearly theological intellectual conventions. For example, to that group of political scientists who call themselves “realists,” this idea undercuts a central tenet of their worldview. Of course, one must always be skeptical of groups that give themselves a name that implies that only their adherents “get it” and that everyone else is by definition out of touch with “reality.” And in this instance, the skepticism is warranted despite the fact that “realists” trace their intellectual origins back thousands of years to venerable characters whose names are now inscribed on library friezes, such as Thucydides. Because while realism is purportedly built around the study of power, “realist” theory suggests that international power is solely concentrated in the hands of states. Private actors don’t really have a role in the realist cosmology. This despite the fact that today private organizations often and obviously wield power in ways that once only countries could, and in some cases in ways that many countries no longer can.
Many companies have greater economic resources at their disposal than many countries. Countries once derived power from their ability to print money, but now most can’t or don’t or have ceded the power to set the value of their currencies to markets. In fact, most of the value-bearing instruments in today’s financial markets are actually created by private organizations, traded in private markets, and only very lightly if at all regulated or understood by governments. And recently governments have concluded that the fate of private financial institutions is so important to the well-being of society that when those institutions falter—even as a result of greed and, in some cases, malfeasance—it is incumbent upon states to prop up the private entities even as private entities have from time to time propped up states.
Countries once controlled borders, but now borders are no longer the effective barriers to commerce or cultural exchange they once were, and while states are weakened by this, global private actors are strengthened. Multinational corporations effortlessly move capital, products, services, and production facilities across borders that are far more porous now than they were in the past. As has been the case almost since their very inception, private actors also have the ability to project force and influence political outcomes, and many have far more developed mechanisms of international persuasion than do the vast majority of countries. Think about the private military companies that the U.S. government employs to fight in the Middle East, or the influence that corporate lobbyists wield in democratic legislatures, or the success that some major energy companies have had in forestalling action on climate change and other environmental issues.
To be fair, even more recently developed theories of international relations such as liberalism (which is similar to realism but stresses the pacifying effects of free trade, democracy, and international institutions) and constructivism (a theory that focuses on cultural factors and asserts that the international system is a social construct) mention private actors only in passing despite their growing influence and role in the global era. In short, most theories of how international society works—the supposed focus of the academic discipline of international relations—are state-centric. Which, as I suggest, is either to miss or to grossly undervalue an important part of what is shaping today’s world and will shape tomorrow’s.
Such intellectual blind spots lead, not surprisingly, to some pretty important flaws in theories on which some pretty important decision making is based. For example, they lead to the thought that the central work involved in advancing national interests involves diplomacy between states. They also assume that national borders define sovereign bubbles in which there is considerably more unity of purpose among resident actors than there actually is. Yet as we all can see from recent headlines, nonstate actors from giant corporations to terrorist groups ...
Most helpful customer reviews
61 of 68 people found the following review helpful.
Outstanding!
By Loyd Eskildson
Appropriate balancing of public and private power is a central issue that helps determine the success of societies. About 15 years ago Americans celebrated the triumph of American capitalism and the defeat of state power by the focus of the marketplace - we'd shown that our balancing of the two was superior, if not optimum. Today, it is clear that our celebrating was premature. The freewheeling market model promoted by America is now reeling from self-inflicted wounds, while new models developed elsewhere (eg. China, Brazil, Israel, Singapore, the UAE) are providing better outcomes.
Author Rothkopf also points out this battle between Main Street and Wall Street is not unique to recent years, nor even to the U.S. - it has both raged years ago (Standard Oil vs. the trust-busters, Upton Sinclair/government vs. the filth, in-humaneness, and dangers of slaughterhouses, etc.) and across both oceans (England - 'Britain has the best democracy that money can buy;' China - moving from Mao's revolutions against businessmen to today's 'socialism with Chinese characteristics).
Unfortunately, since 1980 any semblance of proper balance between big government and big business has been lost - undermining our economy, politics, and international legitimacy. What drives this ongoing conflict? Markets find and exploit scale economies; scale economies, in turn, ease access to political and economic power. Another factor - confusing efforts to reign in alleged overreaching government power with supporting personal freedom. Reality, is that instead these 'victories' simply allow power to accrue to even less accountable private institutions whose interests do not align with those of most people. (Eg. Higher auto manufacturers' profits via emphasizing poor-mileage SUVs.) Thus, in the name of 'freedom,' we've opened the door to financial innovation that has brought excessive speculation. And pursuing the wrong overall economic goal (GDP) has led to loss of millions of jobs through off-shoring (eg. Asia), outsourcing (eg. Mexico), and hiring illegal aliens within our own borders. The former tight connection between economic growth and jobs creation is no more.
Rothkopf also expresses serious concerns over how voting rights have evolved in the U.S. We've gone from denying the right to vote to blacks, women, and while males who did not own land, to allowing each of the preceding to vote, again limiting suffrage via poll taxes (then overturning that practice), to now granting an enormous advantage to non-human corporations with cash. No other country claiming to be a democracy has granted corporations such a privileged role.
Originally corporations were state-sponsored entities whose existence were predicated on advancing the needs of the state. That no longer is the case in the Western world, and our corporations can now undermine society via off-shoring (Asia) and outsourcing (Mexico) millions of jobs, as well as hiring illegals within our borders by the millions. Interestingly, China avoids this problem via its heavy utilization of of state-owned-enterprises. (You probably also won't find any Chinese corporations emulating G.M. (helping Opel/Germany arm itself prior to WWII, assisting the management of Nazi death camps (IBM), or supporting Saddam (Haliburton).
The result - America has become greatly weakened, nearing or perhaps already a 'semi-state.' (A 'semi-state,' per Rothkopf, is one that cannot accomplish any of the four basic functions of a state. These are to manage its finances, project force or at least effectively defend itself, control its borders, and make and enforce its laws.) During the same time-frame, private actors have grown to the point where roughly their richest 2,000 are more influential than 70 - 80% of the world's nations. WalMart has revenues higher than the GDP of all but 25 nations. And the not-so-invisible hands of these mega-players now prevent addressing Global Warming, growing economic inequality, embracing new forms of energy, the need for regulating derivatives, etc. And they've helped shift the spotlight to Tea Partiers, instead of the fact that during the last three decades the gap between the bottom fifth and the top grew larger than it had at any time in history, and continues to grow worse.
Also turns out Adam Smith's support for businesses isn't all it's been claimed to be. 'To prohibit a great people from making all that they can of every part of their own produce, or from employing their stock and industry in the way they judge most advantageous to themselves is a manifest violation of the most sacred rights of mankind.' Rothkopf' take on Smith's 'invisible hand' - "too often we've found Smith's invisible hand to be an iron fist wrapped in an invisible glove."
The 'good news' from Rothkopf is that the 'Chicken Littles' are also premature. Rothkopf tells us there was just as much bickering, conniving, and stupidity in President Washington's time. And the Great Recession did not become a depression.
Bottom-Line: 'Power, Inc' is an excellent synthesis of today's conflict between government by voters vs. by influence-buyers.
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful.
Wish Rothkopf would've run in 2012, then there'd be at least ONE candidate worth voting for.
By Mark Holechek
A MUST READ. The author is a master of explaining complex and important global policies and "plans" that affect us all, in a way that are both entertaining and enlightening. Frankly, if I hadn't read "Running The World" or "Superclass", I wouldn't have anticipated this next book with the same zeal. Fact is, I was looking forward to this (his) latest effort because there's always a tremendous amount of timely and vital information that is interspersed with humor--sometimes, even in a layman's lingo -- that hits home to the core of the issues and to the soul of the reader. That may sound corny, but it's very effective as a way of communicating the thoughts and concepts, and something I need in a book like this to keep me engaged. The author Pulls-No-Punches and shows no ambiguity whatsoever in his descriptions of the subject matter. Some of the scenarios I've already shared with colleagues and friends include the bankruptcy of GM and Saab, and the revelations I garnered from Rothkopf's evaluations of the way things happen differently between governments and businesses here in the US and in Sweden (and other stories from around the world, some approaching time immemorial). There are a lot of real, and dynamic perceptions that make you want to say, "HUH?"... information that will keep you hooked. From human rights issues to corporate hocus-pocus and everything in between, historically documented. Funny? Maybe. Scary? Potentially. Accurate? I think, absolutely. Take it from this guy who was Director of Kissinger Associates in NYC, to the Commerce Department of the US Government during the Clinton Administration, as a Professor at Columbia University, as a visiting Scholar of The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, to the CEO of both the Foreign Policy Magazine Group and his own International Advisory Firm, Garten Rothkopf. (just Google him) Sounds like I'm stumping his book, and I guess I am, it was a great read and thoroughly enjoyable, because without spoiling the ending, it gave me hope.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
A Great--yet Incomplete--Book About The Evolution of Power...But Not Really About a Reckoning
By E. White
I want to start out by pointing out what this book is not: Power, Inc. cannot be characterized as being about the reckoning that lies ahead between corporations and governments. More accurately, it is a historical analysis on how the relationship between corporations (and other trans-national entities) and states came to be. More than likely, the accuracy of the book's cover copy fell victim to a zealous marketer who wanted to amp up the conflict a little, despite Rothkopf's clear efforts to remain as neutral as possible. I'll admit, it did lead to a slight letdown, despite the book's other good qualities.
With that distinction made, the book is a fascinating and accessible primer on the origins, evolution, and nature of power, with a scope spanning from medieval times right up until the date of publication. While I don't necessarily agree with Rothkopf's interpretation of some events, I felt it was an accurate enough dissection and characterization of the factors that influence governance that I started recommending it to friends and coworkers as a good way to grasp what gave an entity legitimate power in the eyes of the people.
However, something about the book wasn't sitting well with me, and I couldn't put my finger on it until I was approaching the book's final chapters: Rothkopf hardly talks about the people, or their role in the mix of power. In fact, it is only in the very last line that he acknowledges that all power accrued by either a corporation or a government flows from the consent of the people to either part with their money or be governed. In a book about power--especially in a book about the power of corporations--you'd think the influence of the proletariat would play a bigger role. Perhaps Rothkopf didn't want to wade into the complexity and capriciousness associated with teasing apart the power of the people and its influence on world events in a book he intended to be straightforward and streamlined but, more likely, I believe he was probably writing about what he knows. Rothkopf comes from the inner circles of power elites (which he hints at often in the book) who already hold sway over large constituencies, either political or commercial, and believe the influence they've derived from that control is a given. It's not, and I need point no further than the Arab Spring to show how tenuous even a dictator's grasp on power really is. If you're wondering why I docked a star from Power, Inc, the fact Rothkopf glossed over this key component of the nature and balance of power (only giving it a token nod at the end of his book) is why.
Returning to the reckoning, I think Rothkopf is trying to advocate a strengthening of government oversight on corporations and the creation of a supra-national governing entity. I say "I think," because Rothkopf is fastidiously neutral, which is nice most of the time, but it also makes it hard to tell where he's coming from. To his credit, I think he advocates this viewpoint only because he's trying to find an oversight structure equivalent to the operating environment multinational corporations have created for themselves. This would, of course, be a reckoning because it would represent a massive increase in government power and coordination...but there are no signs that's going to happen anytime soon, despite the ovations Rothkopf's circles are making in that direction; there is simply too much mistrust in the international community and not enough damage on the part of multinationals for the people to rise up against them.
At the end of the day, money is power, and even with the growing inequity, people have power. We accidentally kill companies all the time simply because they went out of style and couldn't figure out what the people wanted. Whether it's taxes or sales, companies and governments cannot survive without the consent of the people, and I wish Rothkopf had factored that into his calculations more, instead of assuming the world's population would always play the part of willing pawn. I wish I could dock him more stars for what I think is a gross oversight, but the book was otherwise really well done and mostly covered a time when people thought (and generally accepted that) God had made them pawns, and he does a pretty good job of it.
In conclusion, Power, Inc. does a really good job of outlining how the ecosystem of private and public power that exists today came to be, but is more of a history book leading up to a current imbalance of power instead of a thorough analysis of how that imbalance can/might/would/should correct itself. The book is fastidiously neutral, which is mostly quite nice and refreshing, but it extends to his analysis, where I wish he'd take a stronger stand and state his beliefs clearly. He almost completely ignores a major component of the power mix, though, and I think the book is incomplete for it...but it's definitely usable, accessible, accurate in the things it does cover, and fun to read. If I knew what I know now about the book before I read it, I probably still would have read it.
Side note: Incidentally, I also used the Whispersync function ( Power, Inc.: The Epic Rivalry between Big Business and Government - and the Reckoning That Lies Ahead ) while making my way through this book so I could listen while I commuted. The narration was crisp and lively, and it did a good job of holding my attention while I drove. If you like audiobooks, or just spend a lot of time using your eyes for things other than reading, but not your mind, I recommend considering this alternate format.
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