Monopolies and market power
05/25/23 • 41 min
When dominant multinationals get to run the world, it's not a happy place. Or a very secure one. For a long time governments have failed to take the threat from monopolies and the corporate concentration of power seriously, and deal with it. But recent crises have demonstrated how the neoliberal era is crumbling around us and governments must take action. In this episode we look at the challenges and how to tackle this in the public interest.
And, in the US, Minnesota nearly took a historic step for tax justice this month that could have changed everything by bringing corporate profit shifting to heel. The lobbyists said it was the end of the world as we know it - and sadly, they won - for now. What was the big deal? And what are the possibilities for other states and other countries?
Featuring:
- Nick Dearden of Global Justice Now
- Alex Cobham of the Tax Justice Network
- Nick Shaxson, Balanced Economy Project
- Stéphanie Yon-Courtin, MEP and Competition lawyer
- Christopher Gopal of the Global Supply Chain Center, University of Southern California
- Produced and hosted by the Tax Justice Network's Naomi Fowler
Transcript of the show: (some is automated) https://taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Transcript_The_Taxcast_May_2023.pdf
Further reading:
- Monopoly capitalism: What is it and how do we fight it? https://www.globaljustice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Monopoly-capitalism-primer-WEB-FINAL.pdf
- The 5 'R's of tax: https://taxjustice.net/faq/what-are-the-four-rs-of-tax/ Actually the fifth one needs adding (Reparations, or Repair)
- Resisting Monopoly Capitalism (Global Justice Now event in London, March 2023) Opening plenary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MszQ-aj_0a8
- Resisting Monopoly Capitalism - Closing plenary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXbOzYKGizA
- Pharmanomics: How Big Pharma Destroys Global Health (published October 2023) https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/3036-pharmanomics
- How Monopoly Threatens Democracy and Security, an Open Markets Institute and Balanced Economy Project event
- Corporate taxation to curb monopoly power: a brief history and a proposal https://taxjustice.net/2022/11/02/corporate-taxation-to-curb-monopoly-power-a-brief-history-and-a-proposal/
- Tax havens meet monopoly power: why national competitiveness harms competition https://taxjustice.net/2021/08/12/tax-havens-meet-monopoly-power-why-national-competitiveness-harms-competition/
- If tax havens scare you, monopolies should too. And vice versa. https://taxjustice.net/2019/11/01/if-tax-havens-scare-you-monopolies-should-too-and-vice-versa/
- How local, state, and federal tax policies in the us undermine small business and fuel corporate concentration https://taxjustice.net/2022/11/01/us-tax-monopoly/
- Reframing tax policy to r...
When dominant multinationals get to run the world, it's not a happy place. Or a very secure one. For a long time governments have failed to take the threat from monopolies and the corporate concentration of power seriously, and deal with it. But recent crises have demonstrated how the neoliberal era is crumbling around us and governments must take action. In this episode we look at the challenges and how to tackle this in the public interest.
And, in the US, Minnesota nearly took a historic step for tax justice this month that could have changed everything by bringing corporate profit shifting to heel. The lobbyists said it was the end of the world as we know it - and sadly, they won - for now. What was the big deal? And what are the possibilities for other states and other countries?
Featuring:
- Nick Dearden of Global Justice Now
- Alex Cobham of the Tax Justice Network
- Nick Shaxson, Balanced Economy Project
- Stéphanie Yon-Courtin, MEP and Competition lawyer
- Christopher Gopal of the Global Supply Chain Center, University of Southern California
- Produced and hosted by the Tax Justice Network's Naomi Fowler
Transcript of the show: (some is automated) https://taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Transcript_The_Taxcast_May_2023.pdf
Further reading:
- Monopoly capitalism: What is it and how do we fight it? https://www.globaljustice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Monopoly-capitalism-primer-WEB-FINAL.pdf
- The 5 'R's of tax: https://taxjustice.net/faq/what-are-the-four-rs-of-tax/ Actually the fifth one needs adding (Reparations, or Repair)
- Resisting Monopoly Capitalism (Global Justice Now event in London, March 2023) Opening plenary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MszQ-aj_0a8
- Resisting Monopoly Capitalism - Closing plenary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXbOzYKGizA
- Pharmanomics: How Big Pharma Destroys Global Health (published October 2023) https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/3036-pharmanomics
- How Monopoly Threatens Democracy and Security, an Open Markets Institute and Balanced Economy Project event
- Corporate taxation to curb monopoly power: a brief history and a proposal https://taxjustice.net/2022/11/02/corporate-taxation-to-curb-monopoly-power-a-brief-history-and-a-proposal/
- Tax havens meet monopoly power: why national competitiveness harms competition https://taxjustice.net/2021/08/12/tax-havens-meet-monopoly-power-why-national-competitiveness-harms-competition/
- If tax havens scare you, monopolies should too. And vice versa. https://taxjustice.net/2019/11/01/if-tax-havens-scare-you-monopolies-should-too-and-vice-versa/
- How local, state, and federal tax policies in the us undermine small business and fuel corporate concentration https://taxjustice.net/2022/11/01/us-tax-monopoly/
- Reframing tax policy to r...
Previous Episode
Tax Saves Lives
It's horrific that there are so many people across the world who still don’t have access to ‘survival rights.’ Things like basic sanitation, clean water, quality education, decent healthcare so that mothers can survive childbirth - and so their children can even survive their childhood! This is where tax justice gets the most urgent, because tax literally saves lives. And we're going to prove it to you.
In this Taxcast edition, host Naomi Fowler talks to people who’ve looked at new data that demonstrates this. We wish every CEO, every company board member, every shareholder and every government minister in the world would read this report. Then look us in the eye and tell us why they’re not moving every muscle in their body to do what is in their power to protect people, mothers and children. Because when they don’t, they do have blood on their hands.
A transcript of the show is available here: https://taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Taxcast_April-2023_Transcript.pdf
Featuring:
- Eilish Hannah, University of St Andrews
- Alex Cobham, Tax Justice Network
- Rachel Etter-Phoya, Tax Justice Network
- Hosted and produced by Naomi Fowler, Tax Justice Network
More information and further reading available on our website https://www.thetaxcast.com
Next Episode
Spoiled pets and private jets
In this episode Naomi Fowler looks at how the very wealthy shape the world, why the rest of us really, really can't afford them. And, how it never ends just with the pet mansions and the cashmere-lined private jets, as the fascinating story of the EU Court of Justice ruling (reversing progress on public registers of beneficial owners of companies) demonstrates...But, there's plenty we can do about it!
Featuring:
- Florencia Lorenzo of the Tax Justice Network
- Mark Bou Mansour of the Tax Justice Network
- Brooke Harrington, Professor of economic sociology and wealth manager anthropologist
- Luc Caregari, journalist at https://www.reporter.lu in Luxembourg
- Also featuring: spoiled dogs, private jet business colleagues, a disillusioned youtube jet entrepreneur, a new jet owner and his excited friend, Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton (plus her dogs and a reporter), a millionaire who's ditching his jet, author of 'How Bad Are Bananas?' Professor Mike Berners Lee, Dun & Bradstreet youtube briefing
- Produced and hosted by Naomi Fowler, Tax Justice Network
Here's a transcript of the show (some is automated) https://taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/The-Taxcast_transcript_June_2023.pdf
Further reading and viewing:
- Launching the Tax Justice Network's new climate initiative (there'll be more on this soon) https://taxjustice.net/2023/06/22/launching-the-tax-justice-networks-new-climate-initiative/
- How to stop Russian Oligarchs in Their Tracks, from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists https://www.icij.org/investigations/russia-archive/analysis-of-icij-data-shows-how-to-stop-russian-oligarchs-in-their-tracks/
- Brooke Harrington speaks at Follow the Money – War, Climate and Tax Havens, a Tax Justice Norway event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waY73LOEOUg
- Brooke Harrington interview on Offshore Wealth as a Complex System: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WiOzQryvd4
- Complex systems of secrecy: the offshore networks of oligarchs, by Ho-Chun Herbert Chang, Brooke Harrington, Feng Fu, Daniel N Rockmore: https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/2/3/pgad051/7059318
- This Luxembourg Businessman got Europe's Public Corporate Registries Shut Down: but whose privacy was he protecting? By Dragana Peco (OCCRP/KRIK), Alina Tsogoeva (OCCRP), Antonio Baquero (OCCRP), Tom Stocks (OCCRP), Luc Caregari (Reporter.lu), and Carina Huppertz (Paper Trail Media/Der Spiegel) https://www.occrp.org/en/beneficial-ownership-data-is-critical-in-the-fight-against-corruption/this-luxembourg-businessman-got-europes-corporate-registries-shut-down-but-whose-privacy-was-he-protecting
- Comparing the carbon footprint of private jets to owning pets is a waste of time: https://inews.co.uk/news/comparing-carbon-footprint-private-jets-owning-pets-waste-time-2373116
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