When multinationals have power over policy

When multinationals 
have  power over policy 
It has annual revenues of nearly half a "zillion" (almost $ 500 billion), higher than most 
part of nation-states on the planet. The rating agencies give it a rating of solvency 
higher than the United States Treasury. For the last 60 years has almost always been the multinational 
with more profits and with the maximum value on the stock market (only recently surpassed by Apple). It is especially 
"Independent sovereign entity, that is the United States to power in power, has its own foreign policy 
autonomous, and an internal organization similar to that of a large military apparatus. "
It's Exxon, the largest oil company of all time and the implacable opponent 
environmental reforms. A giant able to exercise a power of veto not only on 
Third World governments, not only in the Congress in Washington,
but even on science. 
The revelation is contained in a large American inquiry is this: the role of systematic oil group in the years to falsify the science on climate change finance 
all sorts of theories of Holocaust denial, influencing public opinion and interfering in the American political debate. [...] The revelations about the secrets of Exxon are contained in the book Private Empire 
("Private empire") that was released in the United States. The author, Steve Coll, is a great sign of investigative journalism that has already won two Pulitzer Prizes. This monumental book 
(700 pages) is the result of years of research, 400 interviews, including 
among these numerous sources within the same Exxon. 
Among the topics discussed is the role of the multinational oil company in supporting dictatorial regimes that oppress their own people, you hold the power with weapons and mass violence. more times 
humanitarian NGOs such as Human Rights Watch have denounced 
Exxon had ties with despots to savage in Indonesia (predemocrazia) 
Venezuela, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, as well as with Putin's Russia. In some cases even the foreign policy of the United States has been sabotaged by the "foreign policy of Exxon." The same George W. Bush, the president most of the oil in the history Friend
of America in 2001 with the Indian prime minister snapped: "No one can influence the choices of Exxon." An extreme case is that of Chad in 2006, when the local dictator, General Idriss 
Déby, was put under pressure by the Bush administration and 
by the World Bank because destinasse at least part of 
oil revenues to education and medical care for his people, 
rather than the purchase of weapons. The Exxon "removed" a check 
of $ 700 million for Déby, thus allowing them to ignore Bush and the World Bank. 
Organized to fulfill 
Like all companies, including multinationals detest costs, first of all the 
taxes. For this reason, make extensive use of tax havens. In those territories, that is, with a high degree of secrecy 
and tax relief. Some examples are Liechtenstein, Bermuda, Bahamas, Vanuatu, small territories with more companies than inhabitants. The British Virgin Islands, for example, are home to 700,000 foreign companies, 
while Cayman, an archipelago of three islands in the Caribbean, is the 5th banking center in the world with a value of about $ 1,500 billion. 
Obviously tax havens are ground landing of money from drugs, 
illegal arms trafficking and corruption. But there's also a lot of money with the only clean 
order to evade taxes in your own home. According to the Tax Justice Association, in 
tax havens shelter values ​​for more than 30 thousand billion dollars that allow 
to their holders to save between 200 and 280 billion dollars for taxes on 
their income. It is estimated that the United States government lost 70 billion each year 
dollars for the ability of companies to be doing their earnings in tax havens. 
The rest is not illegal. Even in Italy the law (Article 166 of Presidential Decree 917 of 
1986 - Consolidated Income Tax Act) provides loopholes and many multinationals 
took advantage. 
A case in point is that of Ikea, Swedish multinational family Kamprad, 
that - to escape the taxman - has set up a complex castle owner 
imbued with foundations and financial scattered in tax havens. The analysis of the 
structure highlights two totally separate and distinct corporate groups, which 
converge at the summit to the confluence to the same owner. The first, called 
INGKA Group, is responsible for sales and production. The second, called 
Inter IKEA Group, has the management of the brand, which is the formal owner. 
The result is that the structures of the sale must be paid to the Inter IKEA Group 
royalties equal to 3% of sales in order to use the brand IKEA. And since the royalty 
is a cost item, the result is that the profits of the facility to sale 
are thinned and so did the taxes that weigh on us. Which represents a 
great benefit to the Kamprad family because the royalties do not come to naught, 
but are conveyed to the Inter IKEA Group, domiciled in totally havens 
tax, which conveys them to the family almost entirely tax-free. 
In conclusion we can say that the whole castle was concocted to transmute 
profits in costs where they were made, and let them get to the Kamprad family in 
form detassata making transit tax havens. 
TOP 200 the growth of corporate power 
At the center of the revelations of Coll is the long war against Exxon 
science. An operation carried out for years in secret, 
using as a display of "think tanks" pseudo-independent 
powerful agencies lobbying, action committees to finance 
of politicians. Offensive organized by methods almost 
"Military" part of a multinational Coll describes how 
"A power company built on secrecy, strict rules 
internal security comparable to the black boxes that are 
intelligence agencies of the superpowers. "
It is mainly because of the Exxon-Mobil if the United States - and 
consequently the whole world - have taken no steps 
strong against the devastating threat of climate change. 
Of course, other companies producing fuels 
fossils have countered the imposition of emission limits 
greenhouse gas responsible for global warming. but 
no other company has shown aggressive or intransigent 
As the Exxon-Mobil to deny the well-established scientific evidence 
behind climate change. no other company 
has spent so many millions of dollars to sow doubt among 
politicians, journalists, businessmen and citizens. And considering that 
no other company in all of human history has ever been so 
many millions of dollars at his disposal, it is not surprising that 
his efforts have borne fruit. After twenty years of propaganda 
the American public remains confused and divided about the dangers 
of climate change. And the federal government has failed to 
take serious measures to combat a problem that the rhythm 
which is progressing make the planet uninhabitable within the 
end of this century. Of course, the executives of Exxon-Mobil and 
other oil companies know very well that the heating 
Global is a real danger. How do we 
you know? Thanks to internal documents that were revealed in the 
course of a trial and that were published by the New York 
Times. In the early 90s, the Exxon-Mobil was among the founders 
of a group of companies, the Global Climate Coalition, which had 
aims to allay public fears for the 
global warming and to block official initiatives such as the Protocol 
Kyoto. In 1995, two years before the world's leaders 
would sign the Protocol, the Global Climate Coalition received a 
report from its scientific advisory board: these scientists 
carefully selected informed the Exxon-Mobil 
and the other that the scientific evidence of the fact that the heating 
overall it was caused by human activity actually were "well-founded 
and indisputable. "How did the Global Climate Coalition to 
this inconvenient truth? Simple: the Board of Directors 
ordered that it not be made ​​available publicly. And the Exxon-Mobil 
continued with his cheating ways even after the 
American Parliament had rejected the Kyoto Protocol. 
In fact, they have strengthened even more. A reminder of where Greenpeace 
has managed to get their hands revealed that this campaign 
provided foraging of scientists 'independent' and centers 
studies of the right which questioned the scientific basis 
the reduction of greenhouse gases. We will have reached 
victory, said the memo, when the average citizen will 
understood that climatology is a science full of "uncertainties" 
and judge measures such as the Kyoto Protocol, "out of reality 
. "The Exxon-Mobil, according to Greenpeace, has spent at least 23 
millions of dollars between 1998 and 2007 to support this campaign, 
despite the scientific reasons to worry about the 
climate change become more and more solid. opposite 
the growing consensus in the scientific world and the exhortations 
environmental groups to halt their preface their 
profits to the environmental future of 'humanity, other large companies 
oil and car manufacturers have repudiated their previous 
skepticism. The Exxon-Mobil, however, continued straight 
on his way. When the 2000 elections led to the 
White House oilmen George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, the giant 
Oil has become even more aggressive. Exxon is the only 
the most extreme example of the behavior of the giants of the fuels
fossils, which they consider their profits priority over the 
future of humanity. The Exxon-Mobil and other oil companies 
are dinosaurs that belong to the order of the energy 
Twentieth century. If we let them decide to not give up 
never to fossil fuels that are roasting our planet. 
That is why we must not let them decide. 

?? Salaries gold servants 
At one time the companies were managed by the owners themselves. but 
Today the property is divided among thousands, even, 
hundreds of thousands of shareholders, the management is entrusted to professionals 
who are paid handsomely to make the interest 
of the shareholders. Often their contracts also provide for 
compensation in the form of shares (so-called stock options) to 
in order to induce them to make a profit, the only element of judgment 
of the bag. Not infrequently this stimulus induces a management 
fraudulent after a period of apparent success 
lead to the collapse. 
In any case, the fact remains that the salaries of executives 
business are annually higher. According to a study 
presented in May 2013 of Fisac​​-CGIL (union 
workers in the banking sector), the relationship between pay 
gross of an employee and the average compensation of 
Italian top managers has increased from 1 in 20 in 1970 to 1 in 163 of 
present day. In the United States, according to the union AFL-CIO, has passed 
even from 1 to 42 to 1 in 1980 to 380 today. 
And if the richest man in the world is the Mexican Carlos Slim, 
king of telecommunications, with assets of $ 73 billion 
dollars, the highest-paid manager of a business in the United States 
is Lawrence Ellison, CEO of Oracle, which 
in 2012 received compensation for 92 million dollars. in 
Italy, however, the king of the golden salaries is Sergio Marchionne 
with 47 million euro, equivalent to the total wages of 1,500 
Fiat workers. Follow Luigi Francavilla executive of Luxottica 
(Company of glasses belonging to Leonardo Del Vecchio, 
second richest in Italy after Michele Ferrero) and Federico 
Marchetti executive of Yoox, a company in the fashion industry.