Owning the World

As the various occupy movements protest the concentration of wealth, a remarkable study has looked, for the first time, at who owns the world's 43060 transnational corporations ("TNCs"). New Scientist has a summary which contains some cautionary words about treating ownership as if it were necessarily a synonym for control but the standout figure is that just 1318 companies represent 20% of global operating revenues and, between them, own companies responsible for producing a further 60%. The top 50 TNCs control just short of 40% of the global network of TNCs.