Fifty-three trillion dollars! The new Critical Takes on Corporate Power newsletter is out: criticaltakes.org/newsletters/cr… To get fresh thinking about corporate power delivered to you once a month in a short email, sign up here: criticaltakes.org/newsletters/

UNCTAD tracks 4309 multinationals that make $3.5 trillion in profits between them. Collectively, that is a $500 bn step up in aggregate profits relative to the pre-COVID period.

1) A really helpful account from Tove Maria Ryding Eurodad of 'the initial timid steps on the long road to a UN Convention on International Tax Cooperation' led by the Africa Group eurodad.org/breaking_the_i…

New on Critical Takes: Tackling agrifood monopolies in African countries. Former Zambian competition regulator Chilufya Sampa, now with ShambaCentre, talks about monopoly power, the data problem and the vital role of civil society. Listen/read here: criticaltakes.org/the-corporatio…

So Publish What You Pay, set up in 2002 to campaign for transparency in oil and mining, is refocussing on broader goals of justice and equity. I worked with PWYP for years, so I'll offer some thoughts in the next Critical Takes newsletter about the significance of this.

When corporate monopolists dominate food supplies in African countries, food prices go up. How can African regulators respond? The former head of Zambia's competition commission explains. Listen/read here: criticaltakes.org/the-corporatio…

If you follow Critical Takes here, thanks very much, it's appreciated. But please consider moving to some other social media platform because the owner of this one is using it to stir up racist violence in my country. Critical Takes is also on criticaltakes.bsky.social

New on Critical Takes: Transforming the world economy requires us to think bigger, recognise the challenges and work jointly with activists and social movements. criticaltakes.org/society-and-na… A shorter version of a powerful article originally published by SOMO

"By taxing profits as capital income, the state clips the wings of IP-rich monopolies before their rents become entrenched private fortunes."

I said, "Yes, that's right." He said, "OK, but what can we do about that?" So I re-iterated the book's thesis: that the AI bubble is driven by monopolists who've conquered their markets and have no more growth potential. 6/

The case for AI investment as a bubble, in one punchy thread. All of us who are critics of corporate power should be thinking about the political implications (and opportunities) of a bubble expensively bursting.

The AI bubble, thinking radically, monopolies in Africa and the launch of Resource Justice Network The new Critical Takes newsletter is out! criticaltakes.org/newsletters/ne… If you'd like to get the latest once a month in your inbox, sign up here: criticaltakes.org/newsletters/

With many bad things going on, it can be hard to think long-term about a just economy. But we need to try, to be ready when the opportunities arise. Here, for example, is a sketch of what an agenda for transforming corporate power might look like: criticaltakes.org/the-corporatio…

The UK's £2 bn Patent Box tax break is meant to promote "innovation". Last year a single pharma company collected £486 million, or a quarter of its entire value. For doing what, exactly? Critical Takes fed into this investigation by TaxWatch taxwatchuk.org/wp-content/upl…

UK government to disabled people: money's short, so we're cutting the money you live on. Meanwhile, GSK to UK govt: we'd like £486 million in tax breaks, because we're worth it. UK govt to GSK: sure, no problem. Keep innovating! taxwatchuk.org/wp-content/upl…

In this year's Budget, we're told every penny counts. Yet we've found the UK has given one pharma company a £3.4 billion tax cut on profits of patented drugs, including some too expensive for the NHS, while it still cut UK jobs. How did this happen, and why did no-one notice?🧵

New on Critical Takes: The UK's Big Pharma pricing saga is an example of why business journalists need to dig deeper into corporate accounts. Featuring Mounjaro, the popular weight-loss drug. criticaltakes.org/tax-and-profit…

The company that makes Mounjaro, the weight-loss drug, says the UK is a bad place to do business. But it used to report big profits in the UK. So where did all the profit go? criticaltakes.org/tax-and-profit… FYI Brad Setser whose report is name-checked.