There are laws on the books worldwide that constrain the activity of corporations. The problem is enforcing them effectively, especially when the people who run the businesses can frequently persuade authorities to change the rules to suit them. We explore the role of government in setting and enforcing rules for fairness and competition in the private sector, and how the private sector manages to set the regulation agenda itself.
Chevron, once part of the Standard Oil empire, has grown over the past quarter century into the world’s fourth largest petroleum company, thanks to a series of ambitious acquisitions: Gulf Oil in 1984, Texaco in 2001 and Unocal in 2005. The purchase of Texaco brought with it a massive environmental lawsuit that has dragged on for more than a decade. This is only one of a host of controversies surrounding Chevron’s environmental and human rights record around the world.
The Archer Daniels Midland Corporation (ADM) has been the most prominent recipient of corporate welfare in recent U.S. history. ADM and its chairman Dwayne Andreas have lavishly fertilized both political parties with millions of dollars in handouts and in return have reaped billion-dollar windfalls from taxpayers and consumers.
The Stericycle headquarters are located in Lake Forest, IL. Stericycle processes and disposes of medical waste.
Barrick Gold Corporation, the largest pure gold mining company in the world, is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. It has four regional business units (RBU's) located in Australia, Africa, North America, and South America. Barrick is currently undertaking mining and exploration projects in Papua New Guinea, the United States, Canada, Australia, Peru, Chile, Russia, South Africa, Argentina, and Tanzania. On January 20, 2006, Barrick acquired a majority share of Placer Dome.
Stora Enso Oyj is a Finnish–Swedish pulp and paper manufacturer, formed by the merger of Swedish mining and forestry products company Stora and Finnish forestry products company Enso-Gutzeit Oy in 1998. It is headquartered in Helsinki, and it has approximately 46,000 employees. In 2002 it was the fifth largest pulp and paper manufacturer in terms of revenue and in 2005 it was the world's largest pulp and paper manufacturer in terms of production capacity. The Finnish State is the biggest shareholder in the company.
If there is a company that is the face of the recent subprime mortgage fiasco, it is Countrywide and its CEO Angelo Mozilo. On July 1, 2008 Bank of America announced that it completed a full takeover of Countrywide after receiving approval from the Federal Reserve's Board of Directors on June 5. On October 16, 2008, Countrywide announced it would delist its stock.
Before it collapsed, AIG, as measured by asset value, was the largest insurer in the world. But in September 2008, after its credit rating went down, AIG was caught without enough collateral for the credit default swaps it had sold to banks around the world, and was forced to accept a massive federal bailout package in order to forestall a collapse. As the size of the company's debts have grown, the U.S. government has readjusted the terms of the bailout, and gradually begun to take over parts of the company.
Sterlite Industries (India) Limited and its consolidated subsidiaries (the “Company” or “Sterlite”) are engaged in the businesses of mining, smelting, and refining non-ferrous metals in India and Australia. SIIL is a majority-owned subsidiary of Twin Star Holdings Limited (“Twin Star”), which is in turn a wholly owned subsidiary of Vedanta Resources plc (“Vedanta”), a public limited company incorporated in the United Kingdom and listed on the London Stock Exchange. Twin Star held 57 percent of SIIL’s equity as of Sept. 30, 2008.
The Bank of New York Mellon was created in 2007 by the merger of Bank of New York and Mellon. The bank announced on October 14, 2008 that it was selected by U.S. Treasury to help administer the government's bank bailout program (Troubled Asset Relief Program) authorized under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act.
Tata Sons is the promoter and major shareholder of all key companies of the Tata Group. The chairman of Tata Sons has traditionally been the chairman of the Tata Group. About 66 percent of the equity capital of Tata Sons is held by philanthropic trusts endowed by members of the Tata family.
