THE NEW CORPORATION

A gimlet-eyed critique of the notion of the “socially responsible” corporation.

In April 2019, recounts University of British Columbia law professor Bakan, JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon led a drive with 200-odd other CEOs to declare that corporations were committed not to maximizing returns for their shareholders, but also to serving “workers, communities, and the environment.” It was an unexpected repudiation of the dog-eat-dog capitalist ethic. As the author argues, it is also misplaced; even with this declaration, born of Davos conferences and economic think tanks, the corporation really hasn’t changed, “at least not fundamentally.” Bakan views the “psychopathic institution” with jaundiced disdain, and clearly he does not trust the Dimon declaration. Instead, he expects, the corporation will simply take the occasion of being seen for once as good guys to “cajole governments to free them from the regulations designed to protect public interests and citizens’ well-being,” pushing for further deregulation and privatization. “Visit the website of any major corporation and you’ll wonder whether you’ve accidentally clicked on that of an NGO or activist group,” writes the author—but then read between the lines. Quoting Joseph Stiglitz, Bakan predicts that the drive to deregulate and allow corporations to self-regulate is a recipe for further financial crises, and the supposed transformation of the corporation into a “caring, publicly minded” entity is a false front that disguises the voracious wish of the corporation to take control of every aspect of the economy. This includes the public sector and such services as delivering drinking water to municipalities, which leads to disasters like Flint. Writing clearly and with minimal pleading to economic authority, the author closes by invoking the lessons of the pandemic, which tells us that corporate values are not those of ordinary people: “Unbridled self-interest, individualism, competition, and commoditization cannot be the values that guide us.”

A rigorously argued manifesto against corporate capitalism, even with its supposedly friendly face.