Synopses & Reviews
The worlds largest company, Wal-Mart Stores, has revenues higher than the GDP of all but twenty-five of the worlds countries. Its employees outnumber the populations of almost a hundred nations. The worlds largest asset manager, a secretive New York company called Black Rock, controls assets greater than the national reserves of any country on the planet. A private philanthropy, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, spends as much worldwide on health care as the World Health Organization.
The rise of private power may be the most important and least understood trend of our time. David Rothkopf provides a fresh, timely look at how we have reached a point where thousands of companies have greater power than all but a handful of states. Beginning with the story of an inquisitive Swedish goat wandering off from his master and inadvertently triggering the birth of the oldest company still in existence, Power, Inc. follows the rise and fall of kings and empires, the making of great fortunes, and the chaos of bloody revolutions. A fast-paced tale in which champions of liberty are revealed to be paid pamphleteers of moneyed interests and greedy scoundrels trigger changes that lift billions from deprivation, Power, Inc. traces the bruising jockeying for influence right up to todays financial crises, growing inequality, broken international system, and battles over the proper role of government and markets.
Rothkopf argues that these recent developments, coupled with the rise of powers like China and India, may not lead to the triumph of American capitalism that was celebrated just a few years ago. Instead, he considers an unexpected scenario, a contest among competing capitalisms offering different visions for how the world should work, a global ideological struggle in which European and Asian models may have advantages. An important look at the power struggle that is defining our times, Power, Inc. also offers critical insights into how to navigate the tumultous years ahead.
Review
"Rothkopf's message is especially relevant for the United States, where the market fundamentalism of the 1990s fed a deregulation frenzy of explosive consequences for the decay of today's middle class, and of the country's infrastructure and human capital....The 800 years of history covered in this courageous, learned, and timely book suggests that we still have a choice." Julia Sweig, Council on Foreign Relations
Review
"In his new book, Power, Inc., David Rothkopf sounds an alarm. He argues that thousands of private actors who he calls "super citizens" now hold greater power than most countries in the world....In Rothkopf's view, the world has shifted from a 'battle between capitalism and Communism to something even more complex: a battle between differing forms of capitalism in which the distinction between each is in the relative role of each is in the relative role and responsibilities of public and private sectors.'" Roy Ulrich, The Huffington Post
Review
"Rothkopf is a realist at heart. He recognizes that some form of capitalism is the only way forward — be it a more activist capitalism (being pushed by the emerging powers of India and Brazil), the welfare-state capitalism of northern Europe, or what he calls the "entrepreneurial small-market" capitalism of countries like Singapore and Israel. But for the first time in more than a century, Rothkopf argues, it will not be the Americans leading the way." Matt O'Grady, Canadian Business
Review
"In his new book,Power, Inc., David Rothkopf offers a provocative analysis of the push-pull between big business and big government. He says the rift has gone far past simplistic political rhetoric to a larger battle: pitting American capitalism against other forms of capitalism that have emerged on the worlds stage in the past decade or so." Maureen Mackey, The Fiscal Times
Review
"Rothkopf's book is astonishingly ambitious. It traces the relationship between state and market — a relationship that, he says, has succeeded the relationship between church and state as the dominant conflict in societies — from the thirteenth century to the present....[H]e makes it clear...he thinks that political decisions created the present situation and that only different political decisions will alleviate it." Nicholas Lemann, The New Yorker
Review
"A sharp rebuke of free markets run amok and a loud call for rebalancing public needs and corporate interests." Greg Hanscom, Grist
Review
"Rothkopf...uses a wide-angle lens to examine the relation between public and private power....[He] delivers a lively, accessible treatment of a multifaceted, complex subject." Kirkus, Starred Review
Review
"This should be read by serious students of politics, economics, or business and will be of interest to anyone invested in our country's economic history and, especially, future." Bonnie A. Tollefson, Library Journal
Review
"Rothkopf is an energetic story-teller....The most eye-popping sections of Power, Inc., detail how decolonization, globalization and financial deregulation have subverted the prerogatives states have traditionally reserved for themselves." Romesh Ratnesar, Bloomberg Businessweek
Review
"[A] smart new book....Rothkopf's view, which I share, is that the thing others have most admired and tried to emulate about American capitalism is precisely what we've been ignoring: America's success for over 200 years was largely due to its healthy, balanced public-private partnership." Thomas Friedman, New York Times
Review
"David Rothkopf, as usual, is ahead of the curve with a provocative, insightful book that is easy to read and hard to put down." Anne-Marie Slaughter, Bert G. Kerstetter 66 University Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Princeton University
Review
"Readers, whatever their views on this important debate, will be compelled to rethink today's economic travails and reassess expectations for tomorrow." Daniel Yergin, author of The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World
Review
"Rothkopf's important book chronicles the history of the power money nexus and defines where we are and where we may be going. [It] deserves much discussion in both the world's national and financial capitals." Lawrence H. Summers, Charles W. Eliot University Professor, Harvard University, and former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury
Review
"[A]n astute and creative historian....Power, Inc. tells an important story: how once-weak corporations have evolved into the muscular institutions that are now stronger than many countries....Read it to be informed and delighted." Alan S. Blinder, former Vice Chairman, U.S. Federal Reserve, and Gordon S. Rentschler Memorial Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, Princeton University
Review
"Rothkopf employs a brilliant use of history to identify the channels that could, in the end, lead to a better way forward." Carol Graham, Senior Fellow and Charles Robinson Chair, The Brookings Institution, and author of The Pursuit of Happiness: An Economy of Well-Being
Synopsis
The worlds largest company, Wal-Mart Stores, has revenues higher than the GDP of all but twenty-five of the worlds countries. Its employees outnumber the populations of almost a hundred nations. The worlds largest asset manager, a secretive New York company called Black Rock, controls assets greater than the national reserves of any country on the planet. A private philanthropy, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, spends as much worldwide on health care as the World Health Organization. The rise of private power may be the most important and least understood trend of our time. David Rothkopf provides a fresh, timely look at how we have reached a point where thousands of companies have greater power than all but a handful of states. Beginning with the story of an inquisitive Swedish goat wandering off from his master and inadvertently triggering the birth of the oldest company still in existence, Power, Inc. follows the rise and fall of kings and empires, the making of great fortunes, and the chaos of bloody revolutions. A fast-paced tale in which champions of liberty are revealed to be paid pamphleteers of moneyed interests and greedy scoundrels trigger changes that lift billions from deprivation, Power, Inc. traces the bruising jockeying for influence right up to today's financial crises, growing inequality, broken international system, and battles over the proper role of government and markets.
Rothkopf argues that these recent developments, coupled with the rise of powers like China and India, may not lead to the triumph of American capitalism that was celebrated just a few years ago. Instead, he considers an unexpected scenario, a contest among competing capitalisms offering different visions for how the world should work, a global ideological struggle in which European and Asian models may have advantages. An important look at the power struggle that is defining our times, Power, Inc. also offers critical insights into how to navigate the tumultous years ahead.
Synopsis
One of the worlds leading experts on power offers a penetrating look at the rise of private interestsThe rise of private power may be the most important and least understood trend of our time. David Rothkopf provides a fresh look at how we have reached a point where thousands of companies have greater power than all but a handful of states. Beginning with the story of an inquisitive Swedish goat inadvertently triggering the birth of the oldest company still in existence, Power, Inc. follows the rise and fall of kings and empires, the making of great fortunes, and the chaos of bloody revolutions, and traces the bruising jockeying for influence right up to todays financial crises, growing inequality, broken international system, and battles over the proper role of government and markets.
Rothkopf argues that these recent developments, coupled with the rise of powers like China and India, may not lead to the triumph of American capitalism that was celebrated just a few years ago. Instead, he considers an unexpected scenario: a contest among competing capitalisms offering different visions for how the world should work, a global ideological struggle in which European and Asian models may have advantages. An important look at the power struggle that is defining our times, Power, Inc. also offers critical insights into how to navigate the tumultous years ahead.
About the Author
David Rothkopf is the internationally acclaimed author of Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making and Running the World: The Inside Story of the National Security Council and the Architects of American Power. He is the president and chief executive of Garten Rothkopf, an international advisory firm, and a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and CEO and Editor-at-Large of the FP Group, publishers of Foreign Policy Magazine.