The Silent Takeover

Publisher Description

Named one of the best books of the year by "The Sunday Times" of London, and already a bestseller in England, Noreena Hertz's "The Silent Takeover" explains how corporations in the age of globalization are changing our lives, our society, and our future -- and are threatening the very basis of our democracy. ? Of the world's 100 largest economies, fifty-one are now corporations, only forty-nine are nation-states. The sales of General Motors and Ford are greater than the GDP (gross domestic product) of the whole of sub-Saharan Africa, and Wal-Mart now has a turnover higher than the revenues of most of the states of Eastern Europe. Yet few of us are fully aware of the growing dominance of big business: newspapers continue to place news of the actions of governments on the front page, with business news relegated to the inside pages. But do governments really have more influence over our lives than businesses? Do the parties for which we vote have any real freedom of choice in their a