'We're never gonna believe the corporations over the people': Food manufacturing workers expose what you may be consuming amid Kraft moldy mac and cheese claims
"Giovanni Arrighi has noted that after the South Sea Bubble, British capitalism largely abandoned the corporate form. By the time of the Industrial Revolution, Britain had instead come to rely on a combination of high finance and small family firms—a pattern that held throughout the next century, the period of maximum scientific and technological innovation."
"Some of the country's biggest banks posted earnings reports today. Bank profits were up an average of 11% for those that reported despite some 4th quarter losses...
When #corporations release #climate goals, they get media applause. When they fail to live up to them, they (usually) get media silence and market indifference. By contrast, when they fail to live up to their earnings forecasts, they face media and market punishments. To make climate goals more like earnings forecasts, Shirley Lu proposes mandatory disclosure and #OpenAccess for both the goals and the outcomes.
As #inflation eases, Which reports that #shrinkflation (products getting smaller while remaining the same price), and #skimpflation (ingredients being substituted for cheaper alternatives) continues.... its almost like #corporations have used the price turmoil to increase their profits by less visible means.
if you wanted to know how #streaming services have changed the #musicbusiness then this chart will tell you what you need to know.
Streaming now accounts for nearly two-thirds of sector revenue... given the low level of payments made to #musicians from this source, what we have seen (as in other industries) is a shift in revenue from #workers (artists) to #corporations.
Corporate revenues are rising but few musicians get rich from the income they generate... music is a rentier economy!
I just discovered that one of my favourite philosophical writers, former AI researcher #DavidChapman, has published a book on the current state and future risks of AI;
I've read standalone essays David wrote years ago exploring the philosophical underbelly of AI development, and I'm confident this timely book will be just as insightful.
Think of corporations as a kind of a AI, running on a distributed supercomputer made up of human minds, with access to an Internet of Things where humans are the Things it can control. Looking at it that way, we have been living in an AI armageddon all our lives.
Meanwhile in #Davos... the yearly get-together of the world's #business elite & their fellow travellers, alongside global leaders cosying up to the #corporations managers & owners, kicks off this morning.
We can expect much wringing of hands about how the growing 'polycrisis' will impact global development (and their ability to make a profit), more concerns about #inequality inasmuch as it stokes social rupture which might effect the rich's well being... and lots of pious bulls*t about caring!
'Since 2020, the richest five men in the world have doubled their fortunes. During the same period, almost five billion people globally have become poorer. Hardship & hunger are a daily reality for many people worldwide. At current rates, it will take 230 years to end poverty, but we could have our first trillionaire in 10 years'!
@oxfam latest report on #inequality focusses on the role of #corporations as the engines of the widening gap between rich & poor!
As remarked here before it is not uncommon for #corporations that are in (or approaching) troubled times, to finally appoint a #female CEO (not least because the men have all stepped back in a risk adverse manoeuvre).
So, perhaps we shouldn't be surprise that #Boeing has just appointed its first female CEO, following two #Boeing737max crashes & just before the latest incident... it almost like the board knew things were about to get troublesome & said yup, now's the time to give a women a break
BASF 📼
I still have audio cassettes lying around somewhere at home... but the most impressive thing is the history of the company, and once for me it was just a name on a cassette
"Donald Trump and his fellow rightwing billionaires have a plan for America. They want to turn the United States from a prosperous, middle-class nation into a country of paupers, where bribery is common and the wealthy can get away with anything."