"Oil giant Exxon Mobil has posted the second-largest quarterly profit ever recorded by a publicly-traded US firm.
Helped by high oil prices, the company earned $10.4bn (£5.6bn) in the second quarter of 2006 --
a 36% increase on the same period of 2005."
Review by Scott of
The Future of Food -
"Bad news for those who eat"
"This is a scary documentary about the food industry, primarily in the United States, and the incredible way it's being transformed, largely without the knowledge of the public. ...
The end of the film moves into uplifting territory, complete with folk music, but I suppose they have to, as the preceding 75 minutes have been so unremittingly bleak. Basically the only solution offered is to be politically aware and buy organic. ... isn't it strange to have gotten to a place where the only real political voice an individual has is to buy or not buy something? ...
This is a fascinating and disturbing documentary that pretty much everyone should at least be aware of."
"When I buy a gallon of gas, 5 to 7 cents of what I pay ends up as profits to the oil company. (Local and federal taxes, by contrast, average 48 cents.)"
Apples and oranges, isn't it? Government tax revenues (by design, though of course actual practice is highly imperfect) go to provide public services, while private profits (by design) end up in private pockets.
"The key phrase in this book is “market-dominant minority.” The Chinese of the Philippines (and of Burma, Thailand, Indonesia, and several other places) are a market-dominant minority. So, though for considerably different reasons, are the whites of southern Africa, the Indians of East Africa, the Lebanese of West Africa, and the Eritreans of Ethiopia; so are the tall, pale-skinned elites of Latin America (except for those few countries whose indigenes were completely exterminated by the European conquerors). So were the Slovenes and Croatians of Yugoslavia, the Tutsi of Rwanda, the Jews of Weimar Germany....
Prof. Chua (even) develops a theory of anti-Americanism based on the concept of us as a market-dominant minority in the world at large. ...
(There is a) downside of being a market-dominant minority. It is astonishing, reading Prof. Chua’s case studies, how courageous and resilient some of these entrepreneurial minorities are. Landing in a strange country, they open little stores or set off alone into the bush as peddlers. After decades of hardship and risk, they attain wealth and, via crony capitalism or imperial patronage, some measure of power. Then comes the democratic backlash. They are killed and raped, their stores are burned, the survivors flee. Then, a year or two later, they are back — trading, peddling, dealing, bargaining, painstakingly building up again what was burned down. Speaking as a person with no commercial abilities whatsoever, I am in awe of these market-dominant minorities. And yet, of course, on the other hand, speaking as a person with no commercial abilities whatsoever, I find it all too easy to understand the resentments that build up against them among “sons of the soil.” Amy Chua gives a very telling quote from one of the latter,
Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia:
''If we don’t know how to work well or do business,
at least we know how to fight well!' (Author’s italics.)"
"The venom of crowds isn't new.
'Ancient Rome was smothered in graffiti. But today the mad scrawls of everyday punters can coalesce into a sprawling, menacing mob (Wow. Odd metaphor that. People thousands of kilometers away from you [and each other] typing criticism of your company are equated with a "menacing mob". Reminds me of the comment about how people improperly sharing digital files have been defined as "pirates"), with its own international distribution system, zero barriers to entry, and the ability to ransack brands and reputations. No question, legitimate criticism about companies should get out. The wrinkle now is how often the threats, increasingly posted anonymously, turn savage. Even some A-list bloggers are wondering if the cranks are too often prevailing over cooler heads.
Most companies are wholly unprepared to deal with the new nastiness that's erupting online. That's worrisome as the Web moves closer to being the prime advertising medium -- and reputational conduit -- of our time. 'The CEOs of
the largest 50 companies in the world are practically hiding under their desks in terror about Internet rumors',
says top crisis manager Eric Dezenhall,
author of the upcoming book Damage Control. ...
In the beginning, the idea of this new conversation seemed so benign. Radical transparency: the new public-relations nirvana! Companies, employees, and customers engage in a Webified dialectic. Executives gain insight into product development, consumer needs, and strategic opportunities. All the back-and-forth empowers consumers, who previously were relegated to shouting at call-center minions.
Venom can be a great leading indicator. ...
Millions of people watch this stuff
(Online criticism of companies)
-- then join in and pile on.
Is it any wonder companies lose control of the conversation?
(Very interesting to me that the author apparently assumes that companies should "keep control" of the conversation.)
(Some) ... businesses hire outfits such as BuzzLogic, which uses algorithms to analyze which bloggers and social media are driving the conversation around issues that matter to marketers.
For executives there's a new, $10,000 premium service from ReputationDefender.com that can promote the info you want and suppress the news you don't. The company also claims it can make information disappear altogether. One CEO, it says, watched a negative story about wrongdoing at his company drop from the first page of his Google hits to the third."
Links are mine - ed.
Once again, a story about the sociopathic nature of
corporations and corporate officers,
responding to criticism with fear, righteous umbrage, rage,
and attempts to maintain total control of the situation.
Cf the famous
complaint from politician Richard J. Daley:
"They have vilified me, they have crucified me.
Yes, they have even criticized me!"
"Every day, more of the world’s oil comes from a secretive gang of countries that couldn’t care less about your gasoline bill."
It seems to me remarkably disingenuous that anyone would claim to be
shocked! about that.
All corporate entities couldn't care less about your financial situation, unless said financial situation impacts their bottom line.
In the USA at least, corporations are legally required to maximize profits for their shareholders.
