Critical Takes on Corporate Power

A cautionary tale about a European attempt to break free of US Big Tech which ended up being derailed by it.

If you want to solve a problem of corporate power, don't give seats on your board to the companies creating that problem.

Fresh thinking about corporate power, only on Critical Takes:

- The duplicity of Big 4 accounting firms.

- Last year a UN panel set high standards for critical mineral mining. How's that going?

- Weak journalism and the UK's Big Pharma saga.

All that and more at:

criticaltakes.org/our-takes/

The Big Four accounting and consulting firms are enablers of corporate power and powers in their own right.

They police the rules on behalf of states while advising wealthy clients on how to get advantage from them.

Is it time to break up them up?

criticaltakes.org/tax-and-prof...

On this last point, how broad is this shift and what do you think are its implications?

New on Critical Takes

How the Big Four accounting firms act as guardians of the rules while advising clients on how to get around them.

criticaltakes.org/tax-and-prof...

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The sales of the world's thousand biggest companies are worth $52 trillion, according to Forbes.

Corporate power is dedicated above all to increasing the profits of a wealthy minority.

So what should we do? Here are some ideas from across civil society:

criticaltakes.org/the-corporat...

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Concentration of corporate power a 'huge' concern: UN rights chief A few tech giants accumulating massive power coupled with artificial intelligence is posing huge global rights challenges and needs regulation, the UN human rights chief told AFP in an interview.The f...

"Corporate power, if it's not constrained by the law and by international rights standards, is going to be a huge issue for us."

The UN human rights chief.

Big Tech is the sharp end of a bigger problem: food, finance, medicines, mining, you name it.

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uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/concent...

See also: business reporting (not just the BBC).

criticaltakes.org/tax-and-prof...

Who is killing the coffee trade? I was recently reading the introduction to James Hoffmann’s World Atlas of Coffee, which someone in our house seems to have because this is a subject close to our hearts. He had this to say in his int...

Who is killing the coffee trade? www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/11...

The quality of British media reporting has been really poor.

For instance, no-one seems to have looked at Eli Lilly's accounts to check its complaints about the UK's business environment.

If they did, they'd see a highly profitable company structured to book much of its profits in tax havens.

And @politico.com even badges this story as an "exclusive", though Eli Lilly appears to be working every UK media outlet they can to get their message across.

They were in the @financialtimes.com (again) yesterday, moaning about European drug rebates.

Call it what it is: a hustle.

Britain’s plan to raise NHS drug prices won’t bring back Lilly’s investment Comments from medicines firm Eli Lilly will be a blow to British officials, who are in advanced negotiations with the Trump administration to secure tariff relief.

Another day, another British media story which uncritically reports the claims of a US Big Pharma company without considering the context.

Which is that this company is highly profitable already, but still wants more revenues, more profits and more public subsidies.

www.politico.eu/article/brit...

The FT story (paywalled now) is basically US firm Eli Lilly saying European countries "claw back" too much money from its drug sales.

But Eli Lilly's Dutch accounts show it sitting on a giant pile of money.

Like Smaug the dragon from "The Hobbit", complaining that the dwarves are too greedy.

Eli Lilly calls on Europe to ditch clawback taxes on drugmakers US pharma group says region’s use of ‘one-way insurance system’ to keep down prices is not fair on the industry

(sigh)

www.ft.com/content/aaaf...

criticaltakes.org/tax-and-prof...

Ensuring justice in the mining of critical minerals and Big Pharma's UK drug price shenanigans.

The new Critical Takes newsletter is out!

(Delayed a few days by a technical hitch)

criticaltakes.org/newsletters/...

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We have the right to know which multinational corporations cheated on over a trillion in tax. Our governments had the tax records but didn’t make them public. Doing so could’ve recover hundreds of billions in tax #NameTheTaxCheaters #TaxJustice2025

Find out more: bit.ly/49wNnH0

Who are UN climate talks really serving? 🤔

What we see:

🚩 Big polluters as sponsors
🚩 Fossil fuel executives in presidency teams
🚩 Multinationals included in negotiation
🚩 Fossil fuel phase-out missing from the agenda
🚩 Spotlight on corporate-driven "solutions" e.g. carbon offsets

#COP30 (1/3)

Good idea!

Meanwhile, in another part of the forest:

www.taxwatchuk.org/taxwatch-inv...

A related problem is that big business has a huge influence on our societies but to find out about it, we mostly rely on specialised business reporting which is narrowly focussed on the share price and (sometimes) on jobs.

The UK's Big Pharma/NHS price dispute is an example.

International cooperation matters because (from experience) if you go to a government with any policy proposal which touches the power of private capital, even lightly, the likely response will be "are any other countries doing this?"

And your answer can't be "er, maybe".

Really interesting thinking from the UK about how to democratise planning.

The power of very large corporations is going to be, in many cases, a big obstacle to these things happening.

So it's good to see that this agenda includes more democratic models of the firm, and international cooperation.

On the same principle, widen the corporation tax base by getting rid of obvious boondoggles like the Patent Box.

Nearly £500m of which went to one company last year.

www.taxwatchuk.org/taxwatch-inv...

In absolute terms this won't raise vast revenues, but it sends a message: no corporate freebies.

3. Why radical change means working differently

criticaltakes.org/society-and-...

4. African regulators vs monopolies

criticaltakes.org/the-corporat...

5. Reviving a UN commission for multinationals

criticaltakes.org/the-corporat...

Much more here!

criticaltakes.org/our-takes/

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Critical Takes on Corporate Power presents fresh thinking from civil society around the world.

Five of the newest:

1. Justice in the mining of critical minerals

criticaltakes.org/society-and-...

2. The UK's Big Pharma drug price saga

criticaltakes.org/tax-and-prof...

...

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New on Critical Takes:

How to ensure justice for low- and middle-income countries in the mining of critical minerals?

An interview with Suneeta Kaimal of @nrginstitute.bsky.social

Listen or read the transcript here:

criticaltakes.org/society-and-...

Also one for @resourcejustice.bsky.social

Tobacco companies are trying to sabotage international measures to control tobacco use, says this very forthright official statement.

It lists the industry's tactics: inserting its sympathisers into national delegations, astroturfing, misleading research etc.

Good to see this nastiness called out.

Investors know the US stock market is massively overpriced but they don't care because they assume that if there's a crash, central banks will bail them out again.

And people wonder why the Far Right is doing so well in the global North.

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-prof...

UN experts urge binding accountability for agribusiness to safeguard peasants’ rights and global food security GENEVA — A handful of powerful corporations now control vast portions of global agricultural production, input markets and food supply chains, a concentration of power that undermines the autonomy of ...

www.ohchr.org/en/press-rel...