It's All for Sale: The Control of Global Resources

Book Description

Five companies dominate the U.S. petroleum industry. Five control the worldwide trade in grain. Two have a corner on the private market for drinking water. In terms of actual dollars, trade in heroin, cocaine, and tobacco ranks alongside that in grain or metals. There are more slaves in the world today than ever before. Resource by resource, It’s All for Sale uncovers and discloses who owns, buys, and sells what. Some resources—such as fuel, metals, fertilizers, drugs, fibers, food, forests, and flowers—have, for better or worse, long been thought of as commodities. Others—including fresh water, human beings, the sky, the oceans, and life itself (in the form of genetic codes)—are more startling to think of as products with price tags, but, as James Ridgeway shows, they are treated as such on a massive scale in lucrative markets around the world.

Revealing the surprisingly small number of companies that control many of the basic commodities we use in everyday life, It’s All for Sale confirms in specific detail that globalization has been accompanied by an extraordinary concentration of ownership. At the same time, it is about much more than what company has cornered the market in corn or diamonds. Corporations and captains of industry, wars and swindles, oppressors and the oppressed, empires and colonies, military might and commercial power, economic boom and bust—all these come alive in Ridgeway’s canny and arresting reporting about the global scramble for power and profit. It’s All for Sale is an invaluable source for researchers, activists, and all those concerned with globalization, corporate power, and the exploitation of individuals and the environment.

Customer Reviews:

Why hasn't anyone else reviewed this?.......2005-05-29

I can't believe I'm the first person to review this book?! I think any social entrepreneur/activist would benefit from this summary of how our surroundings, and even our bodies, are being commiditized. The most disturbing statistic in the book for me was how there are more people in slavery today than at any other time in human history?! I think a book like this compliments 'The World is Flat' very well. There is a dark underbelly to globalization that can be remedied by socially conscious captilism. (...)

The CENTERLESS CORPORATION: A NEW MODEL FOR TRANSFORMING YOUR ORGANIZATION FOR GROWTH AND PROSPERITY

Average customer rating:

Great Idea, but can it be applied?
A few interesting ideas, but caveat emptor
Nothing but Fluff
Innovative and Informative
Extremely good, but a little repetitive

The CENTERLESS CORPORATION: A NEW MODEL FOR TRANSFORMING YOUR ORGANIZATION FOR GROWTH AND PROSPERITY
Bruce A. Pasternack , Albert J. Viscio , and FRANK FRANK ASCH
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Commodities | Investing | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Organizational Change | Organizational Behavior | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Entrepreneurship | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0684851997

Amazon.com

Bruce Pasternack and Albert Viscio, founding partners of Booz-Allen & Hamilton's Strategic Leadership Practice, have taken a comprehensive study on current business behavior that was conducted by their consulting firm and have used it to develop an intriguing new structure for companies of the future. In The Centerless Corporation: Transforming Your Organization for Growth and Prosperity in the New Millennium, they argue that decreasing bureaucracy and increasing communication in an environment where education and idea-sharing are actively promoted will prove a successful alternative to the top-down style of central management still favored by many businesses today.

Book Description

In today's fast-paced global business environment, the conventional model of the corporation and its management principles no longer deliver results. Economic upheaval, changing demographics, and technological revolution have forever altered the requirements for running a business today. Now, in response, The Centerless Corporation presents a radical new corporate model -- designed for your organization's survival, growth, and prosperity.

Drawing on groundbreaking research they conducted at Booz • Allen & Hamilton, Bruce A. Pasternack and Albert J. Viscio offer a comprehensive strategy for managing in turbulent times. To deal with increasing complexity, they contend, leaders must abandon their command-and-control mentality and establish a model in which responsibility and accountability are distributed throughout the organization, employees are regarded as valued resources, and knowledge flows freely. Illustrating their ideas with invaluable real-life examples, Pasternack and Viscio explain how to attract and develop leaders, build coherence to unite all parts of an organization, and restructure business units and corporate roles to add value rather than overhead.

Customer Reviews:

Great Idea, but can it be applied?.......2007-04-11

This idea of a centerless corporation is ideal. Progressing to this step will be very difficult. I think all managers in corporations should be required to read and grasp this idea. It will make their job more efficient and less stressful.

A few interesting ideas, but caveat emptor.......2001-07-23

I worked as an internal consultant in a large US federal agency where Booz Allen & Hamilton used this book as the "Bible" for their restructuring effort. While some of the ideas have merit, the book is overly prescriptive without enough regard for the nature of the underlying organization and its environment. Woe to the government executive who thinks he or she can manage a "centerless" agency, with its scary implications for accountability to Congress, the head of the agency, and citizens. Perhaps this review is more a reflection on how the book was used by BAH, but the lack of caution I saw in its application leads me to advise readers to be careful about applying its guidance. I would hazard a guess that similar dangers confront private sector consumers of this book's prescriptions.

Nothing but Fluff.......2000-03-17

This book was written solely as a money-maker, rather than a real information and strategy provider. As a consultant, I bought this book to provide background on corporate organizational issues. Much to my dismay, the book offered me nothing--and I mean NOTHING! The book is simply a recap of what any consultant should already know about corporate strategies, business models and organizational development. I believe that these writers began to think that they were in the wrong business, and therefore, tried to earn a little extra money by putting down what they already knew rather than researching, analyzing and providing something that is truly innovative and transforming. A good read if you want to know the basics and are new to business, otherwise, a waste of time!

Innovative and Informative.......1999-11-30

This book provided real world solutions to the issues facing the large 21st century corporation. It is clear that the authors have an enormous amount of experience and they share the lessons they have learned in an easy-to-understand manner. I have recommended the book to the chairwoman of my corporation.

Extremely good, but a little repetitive.......1999-09-16

I enjoy reading "The Centerless Corporation" more than almost any other business book. It provided me with a lot of good applicable ideas based on a visionary perception of the corporate organizations for the next century.

Average customer rating:

Commodities and Globalization
Angelique Haugerud , and Peter D. Little
Manufacturer: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Policy & Current Events | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Volunteer Work | Job Hunting & Careers | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Development & Growth | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Economic Policy & Development | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Commodities | Investing | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Today's growing fascination with flows of people, commodities, technology, capital, images and ideas across national and other boundaries poses fresh theoretical and methodological challenges to anthropology. Commodities offer a particularly useful window on globalization because they, unlike electronically conveyed capital, transport cultural messages. These ideological or symbolic transfers are of particular interest to economic anthropology. This collection considers how conceptions and roles of commodities may change in response to widening spheres of economic interaction and exchange. The essays in this volume are ordered under two themes. Those included in the first section, "Commodities in a Globalizing Marketplace," address historically and culturally defined variations in meanings and practices associated with commodities in globalizing markets. In Part Two, "The Circulation and Revaluation of Commodities", contributors analyze how commodity producers' experiences are informed by colonial and post-colonial history, state directives in the marketplace, and locations in dependent or marginalized regions. The chapters all focus on the production process as it responds to, is distorted by and increasingly is controlled by the determination of the value of those commodities outside a "locality".

Fair Trade and a Global Commodity: Coffee in Costa Rica (Anthropology, Culture and Society)

Average customer rating:

Fair Trade and a Global Commodity: Coffee in Costa Rica (Anthropology, Culture and Society)
Peter Luetchford
Manufacturer: Pluto Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Exports & Imports | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

International | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Ethics | Business Life | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Market Sense: Toward a New Economics of Markets and Society (New Political Economy)

Average customer rating:

Market Sense: Toward a New Economics of Markets and Society (New Political Economy)
Philip Kozel
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Policy & Current Events | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Economic Conditions | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Exports & Imports | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Free Enterprise | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

International | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Theory | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Economic Conditions | International | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Globalization | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0415977991

Book Description

Many economists celebrate markets as institutions promoting efficiency and supporting freedom and liberty; others condemn them for generating economic inequality and social disharmony. i Exchanging Entailments /i offers a critical evaluation of both perspectives and outlines a new economics of markets and society. This book concentrates upon the historic associations of the marketplace in the work of Aristotle, Adam Smith, Karl Marx and demonstrates what markets were imagined to entail for society was critical to each author's understanding of the central social problems of their time. Smith's work receives particular attention because his market sense underlies so much of the official defense of contemporary globalization. Marx's mature work on the other hand both provides a way to break the mechanical linking of markets to particular social outcomes and encourages us to displace the market from the center of economic analysis it has occupied both in the history of political economy and in recent controversies over globalization.

Customer Reviews:

Wow.......2006-03-21

Phil Kozel is possibly the greatest theorist sense Karl Marx. He is a great man and a great scholar. This is quite simply next to Das Kapital and The Communist Mannifesto the greatest book ever written.

Trade and Migration in the Modern World (Routledge Studies in the Modern World Economy)

Average customer rating:

Trade and Migration in the Modern World (Routledge Studies in the Modern World Economy)
Carl Mosk
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

International | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Commodities | Investing | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Emigration & Immigration | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0415365201

Book Description

Trade and Migration in the Modern World explores one of the main paradoxes that faces the modern world today: the dichotomy between nationalism and internationalism in economic affairs. The growing integration of national economies, as a result of globalization has resulted in mistaken belief that economic policies are no longer governed by individual countries.

This book examines the principal characteristics of globalization. Mosk utilizes a theory of economic and political gravitation to assess the impact that market forces and political resistant have on the diversity and correlation of trade and migration flows. This book presents an empirical and quantitative analysis of long run immigration and population dynamics, trade flows and the political economy of immigration policy across the US, Europe and Japan.

An impressive achievement the book will be invaluable to students studying economics as well as demographic historians, policymakers and political scientists.

Commodity policy in an era of globalization: the Mexican sugar industry and its problems under NAFTA.: An article from: Policy Studies Journal

Average customer rating:

Commodity policy in an era of globalization: the Mexican sugar industry and its problems under NAFTA.: An article from: Policy Studies Journal
Antonio Lara , and Paul Rich
Manufacturer: Policy Studies Organization
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Policy Studies Journal, published by Policy Studies Organization on February 1, 2003. The length of the article is 5196 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Commodity policy in an era of globalization: the Mexican sugar industry and its problems under NAFTA.
Author: Antonio Lara
Publication: Policy Studies Journal (Refereed)
Date: February 1, 2003
Publisher: Policy Studies Organization
Volume: 31 Issue: 1 Page: 101(10)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Global Accounting Standards.(standard setting agencies respond to potential globalization of securities exchanges)(Brief Article): An article from: Strategic Finance

Average customer rating:

Global Accounting Standards.(standard setting agencies respond to potential globalization of securities exchanges)(Brief Article): An article from: Strategic Finance
Frank Minter
Manufacturer: Institute of Management Accountants
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Strategic Finance, published by Institute of Management Accountants on November 1, 2000. The length of the article is 418 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Global Accounting Standards.(standard setting agencies respond to potential globalization of securities exchanges)(Brief Article)
Author: Frank Minter
Publication: Strategic Finance (Refereed)
Date: November 1, 2000
Publisher: Institute of Management Accountants
Volume: 82 Issue: 5 Page: 6

Article Type: Brief Article

Distributed by Thomson Gale

The Globalization of Organic Agro-Food Networks [An article from: World Development]

Average customer rating:

The Globalization of Organic Agro-Food Networks [An article from: World Development]
L.T. Raynolds
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000RR18VQ

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from World Development, published by Elsevier in 2004. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
This article analyzes the booming world trade in organic agro-foods such as tropical products, counterseasonal fresh produce, and processed foods. Research focuses on expanding South-North networks linking major US and European markets with major production regions, particularly in Latin America. Employing a commodity network approach, I analyze organic production, distribution, and consumption patterns and the roles of social, political, and economic actors in consolidating international trade. Organic certification proves central to network governance, shaping product specifications, production parameters, and enterprise participation. My analysis identifies key contradictions between mainstream agro-industrial and alternative movement conventions in global organic networks.

Habeas Corpus: citizens are commodities, dialogue is dead and civilisation is barbaric in the new global order. Against capital and state, open borders represent hope.: An article from: Arena Magazine

Average customer rating:

Habeas Corpus: citizens are commodities, dialogue is dead and civilisation is barbaric in the new global order. Against capital and state, open borders represent hope.: An article from: Arena Magazine
Angela Mitropoulos
Manufacturer: Arena Printing and Publications Pty. Ltd.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Arena Magazine, published by Arena Printing and Publications Pty. Ltd. on October 1, 2001. The length of the article is 2363 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Habeas Corpus: citizens are commodities, dialogue is dead and civilisation is barbaric in the new global order. Against capital and state, open borders represent hope.
Author: Angela Mitropoulos
Publication: Arena Magazine (Refereed)
Date: October 1, 2001
Publisher: Arena Printing and Publications Pty. Ltd.
Page: 52(3)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

How do you turn any adult into a pragmatic money manager? By giving a straight talk about money in simple words! Here is a book that cuts the fat out and gives only the meat. Written by a professor of financial management, HOW TO SAVE, SPEND, INVEST, AND BORROW MONEY IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM has practical advice anyone can use to build financial security. In fewer than 150 pages, it explains key investments including the stock market. It spotlights easy-to-follow ideas on the most serious concerns--planning for retirement and how to pay for your kids' college education. This book on money is an investment in your future.

Book Description

"Michalos. . . offers his own approach to the topic in this clearly written (with humorous tone), well-structured, fully reasoned, and courageous presentation. . . . Each chapter offers a great deal of information, discusses numerous arguments, and takes an unambiguous stand. . . . the reader. . . will certainly benefit from this fairly broad approach to business ethics." --G. Enderle in Choice "Alex C. Michalos exemplifies how one proceeds on the assumption that 'God dwells in the details,' and how one engages in an increasingly fuzzy world by balancing principled commitment and skepticism. As a direct result, you will find yourself getting sucked into a dialogue about things that matter to you, which is the whole point of A Pragmatic Approach to Business Ethics." --Jonathan B. King, Associate Professor of Management, Oregon State University "Professor Michalos has produced a marvelously valuable collection of work here. . . . To my knowledge, Professor Michalos has produced the only business ethics text marketed today that examines critical ethical issues from a consistently pragmatic perspective. In 'Ethical Considerations in Evaluation,' Michalos develops a rigorous model demonstrating the compatibility of ethical and rational decision making. 'Fourteen Unsuccessful Ways to Pass the Buck' presents fourteen thoughtful refutations of the argument that business people do not have moral responsibilities. What's the matter with Machiavellian ethics? 'The Best and Worst Arguments for Business Ethics' probes that question provocatively. Trust--an informed propensity to allow oneself to be vulnerable to harm in the interest of some perceived greater good--may be the single most important virtue to be gained from a study of A Pragmatic Approach to Business Ethics. . . . Michalos has done an outstanding job and I am confident that his text will be widely adopted." --Bill Shaw, Woodson Centennial Professor, Legal and Ethical Studies in Business, University of Texas, Austin "This book provides a very wide-ranging collection of examples of where business ethics make a difference - advertising, tobacco promotion, manufacture and marketing of armaments, concentration and taxation of wealth and the North American Free Trade Agreement. A well-presented collection of evidence that business and ethics can go together and provides support for a pragmatic approach." --Journal of Management Psychology Alex C. Michalos, long-time Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Business Ethics, argues for a pragmatic approach to business ethics and demonstrates the usefulness of the approach by applying it to a variety of issues within this remarkable book. The issues discussed are broad and far-reaching and include the relations between rational and moral/ethical decision making, the limits of loyalty to employers, the impact of trust on business, and the role of commercial public opinion polling during elections. Michalos also covers advertising, tobacco promotion, manufacture and marketing of armaments, concentration and taxation of wealth, and the North American Free Trade Agreement. Provocative and insightful, A Pragmatic Approach to Business Ethics provides a foundation for business ethics that is essential. This volume will be of interest to professionals in all fields and to students and scholars in business ethics and social issues in business courses.

Rethinking Business Ethics: A Pragmatic Approach (The Ruffin Series in Business Ethics)

Average customer rating:

Rethinking Business Ethics: A Pragmatic Approach (The Ruffin Series in Business Ethics)
Sandra B. Rosenthal , and Rogene A. Buchholz
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Organizational Behavior | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Ethics | Business Life | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Entrepreneurship | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Organizational Behavior | Business Management | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

All Amazon Upgrade | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Business & Investing | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Professional & Technical | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0195117360

Book Description

Using classical American pragmatism, the authors provide a philosophical framework for rethinking the nature of the corporation--how it is embedded in its natural, technological, cultural, and international environments, emphasizing throughout its pervasive relational and moral dimensions. They explore the relationship of this framework to other contemporary business ethics perspectives, as well as its implications for moral leadership in business and business education.

A pragmatic approach to business ethics: panel discussion and author's response.(Panel Discussion): An article from: Review of Business

Average customer rating:

A pragmatic approach to business ethics: panel discussion and author's response.(Panel Discussion): An article from: Review of Business

Manufacturer: St. John's University, College of Business Administration
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Review of Business, published by St. John's University, College of Business Administration on December 22, 1995. The length of the article is 7153 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the supplier: A panel of critics presented their comments regarding Dr. Alex Michalos' book 'A Pragmatic Approach to Business Ethics.' Rose Zuzworsky focused on the book's thesis on the ethical responsibility of businesspeople. Richard Hansen tackled Michalos' views regarding the profitability of business morals. Paul T. Durbin criticized Michalos' proposal for a pragmatic method of developing business ethics. Michalos gave a reply to all of the comments presented.

Citation Details
Title: A pragmatic approach to business ethics: panel discussion and author's response.(Panel Discussion)
Publication: Review of Business (Refereed)
Date: December 22, 1995
Publisher: St. John's University, College of Business Administration
Volume: v17 Issue: n2 Page: p29(8)

Article Type: Panel Discussion, Bibliography

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Rethinking Business Ethics: A Pragmatic Approach

Average customer rating:

Rethinking Business Ethics: A Pragmatic Approach
Sandra B. Rosenthal
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OK9Z8O

Book Description

An edited version of the Individual and Corporations taxation volumes, the Comprehensive Volume provides a thorough and balanced treatment of all relevant code and regulations as they apply to both individuals and corporations. This text can either be used in a one-term course that emphasizes individuals and corporations, or in a two-term course where the instructor wants less detail. The 1999 Edition includes all the changes resulting from the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997!

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books