Global Economic Debacle and Corporate Power

Frederick F Clairmonte John Cavanagh Four inter-related trends, it is argued in this paper, will be paramount in determining the global thrust of the largest of the transnational corporations in the remaining years of this decade. These are (i) stagnation of inter- national trade; (ii) stagnation or even a further plunge in primary commodity prices; (iii) accelerating shifts from productive investment to speculation fed by an avalanche .of debt; and (iv) intensified economic wars.