5 ms·

Name one?

black-tea 8y ago
Disney is mostly responsible for copyright in the US being extended to ludicrous lengths. They changed the law so they could keep making money. Also these copyright companies seem to get special treatment by the government. Notice how they are able to use police to "raid" data centres etc.? In the UK a young guy who ran a torrent site was raided by police in the early hours only to be released without charge months later. These companies have special powers in government, hence practically they are a part of the government.
- kmlx 8y ago
  disney is a publicly traded company. i own stock in disney :)
  - ummonk 8y ago
    The Dutch East India Company was publicly traded too.
    - mcv 8y ago
      It was in fact the first company in the world that was publicly traded at the world's first stock exchange.
  - jeffwass 8y ago
    There were bonds issued by Dutch East India Company https://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Record/3433724 https://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Record/3433724
    - wcoenen 8y ago
      Bonds are just a debt instrument, they don't give control over companies like stocks. The VOC also had publicly tradable stocks though.
  - arcticbull 8y ago
    The Dutch East India Company was the first company in the history of the world to issue shares to the public. They paid an 18% dividend for over 200 years.
rjf72 8y ago
It's probably reasonable to consider regulatory capture the same thing, in practice. For instance this [1] was who the former president appointed to a newly created post, which he himself (the president) referred to as 'The Czar of Foods'. He was the effective head of the FDA's food division. He was a Monsanto VP and lobbyist who had argued for such things as allowing companies to knowingly allow at least a minimal amount of carcinogenic material into processed foods. Great guy to be in charge of food safety. It meant that Monsanto was effectively in charge of food safety in the US. This led to things such as the FDA not even testing foodstuffs for excessive levels of glyphosate until a Government Accountability Report publicized this [2,3], federal legislation prohibiting state labeling requirements for genetically engineered foodstuffs, the FDA opting for no regulations whatsoever specific to genetic engineering instead offering a purely voluntary consultation process and otherwise relying on self regulation, etc. Monsanto's contemporary success was largely a product of government engineering. The epilogue also feels somehow political. Shortly after Bayer (a German company) bought Monsanto, they suddenly started losing critical court cases in the US. In particular they've now lost two cases in the US with the courts deciding that Monsanto's glyphosate was the cause of the plaintiff's cancer. This, in turn, has now set the precedent and opened the door for some 11,200 more lawsuits against Bayer for glyphosate causing cancer. In something like 3 years we went from 'This product is so safe, we don't even need to test for it.' to 'This product undoubtedly causes cancer and you now owe billions of dollars in damages to thousands of plaintiffs.' The acquisition was a modern day Trojan Horse. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_R._Taylor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_R._Taylor [2] - https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-15-38 https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-15-38 [3] - https://www.reuters.com/article/us-food-agriculture-glyphosate-idUSKBN0N82K020150417 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-food-agriculture-glyphosa...
jacquesm 8y ago
Blackwater/Xe/Academi/whatever they will whitewash their name to next.
- AndyMcConachie 8y ago
  Mercenary outfits are by definition not part of the government. That's what makes them mercenaries.
ionised 8y ago
Goldman Sachs
zeofig 8y ago
Google?? Excuse me, Alphabet!
thousandautumns 8y ago
Renault is partially owned by the French Government I believe
- Anarch157a 8y ago
  The government holds only 15.01% of the company, according to Euronext, just 0.01% more than the second largest investor.
molteanu 8y ago
Facebook
Anarch157a 8y ago
Petrobras, the Brazilian oil company is the largest company in the country by number of employees and revenue. Two of the largest banks here, Banco do Brasil and Caixa Economica Federal are both federally owned and both are larger than their private competitors, thanks to a couple of monopolie they hold (BB has a stranglehold on financing agriculture, and CEF operates the lotteries).

Name one?

Disney is mostly responsible for copyright in the US being extended to ludicrous lengths. They changed the law so they could keep making money. Also these copyright companies seem to get special treatment by the government. Notice how they are able to use police to "raid" data centres etc.? In the UK a young guy who ran a torrent site was raided by police in the early hours only to be released without charge months later. These companies have special powers in government, hence practically they are a part of the government.

kmlx 8y ago
disney is a publicly traded company. i own stock in disney :)
- ummonk 8y ago
  The Dutch East India Company was publicly traded too.
  - mcv 8y ago
    It was in fact the first company in the world that was publicly traded at the world's first stock exchange.
- jeffwass 8y ago
  There were bonds issued by Dutch East India Company https://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Record/3433724 https://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Record/3433724
  - wcoenen 8y ago
    Bonds are just a debt instrument, they don't give control over companies like stocks. The VOC also had publicly tradable stocks though.
- arcticbull 8y ago
  The Dutch East India Company was the first company in the history of the world to issue shares to the public. They paid an 18% dividend for over 200 years.

rjf72 8y ago

It's probably reasonable to consider regulatory capture the same thing, in practice. For instance this [1] was who the former president appointed to a newly created post, which he himself (the president) referred to as 'The Czar of Foods'. He was the effective head of the FDA's food division. He was a Monsanto VP and lobbyist who had argued for such things as allowing companies to knowingly allow at least a minimal amount of carcinogenic material into processed foods. Great guy to be in charge of food safety. It meant that Monsanto was effectively in charge of food safety in the US. This led to things such as the FDA not even testing foodstuffs for excessive levels of glyphosate until a Government Accountability Report publicized this [2,3], federal legislation prohibiting state labeling requirements for genetically engineered foodstuffs, the FDA opting for no regulations whatsoever specific to genetic engineering instead offering a purely voluntary consultation process and otherwise relying on self regulation, etc. Monsanto's contemporary success was largely a product of government engineering. The epilogue also feels somehow political. Shortly after Bayer (a German company) bought Monsanto, they suddenly started losing critical court cases in the US. In particular they've now lost two cases in the US with the courts deciding that Monsanto's glyphosate was the cause of the plaintiff's cancer. This, in turn, has now set the precedent and opened the door for some 11,200 more lawsuits against Bayer for glyphosate causing cancer. In something like 3 years we went from 'This product is so safe, we don't even need to test for it.' to 'This product undoubtedly causes cancer and you now owe billions of dollars in damages to thousands of plaintiffs.' The acquisition was a modern day Trojan Horse. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_R._Taylor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_R._Taylor [2] - https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-15-38 https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-15-38 [3] - https://www.reuters.com/article/us-food-agriculture-glyphosate-idUSKBN0N82K020150417 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-food-agriculture-glyphosa...

jacquesm 8y ago

Blackwater/Xe/Academi/whatever they will whitewash their name to next.

AndyMcConachie 8y ago
Mercenary outfits are by definition not part of the government. That's what makes them mercenaries.

ionised 8y ago

Goldman Sachs

zeofig 8y ago

Google?? Excuse me, Alphabet!

thousandautumns 8y ago

Renault is partially owned by the French Government I believe

Anarch157a 8y ago
The government holds only 15.01% of the company, according to Euronext, just 0.01% more than the second largest investor.

molteanu 8y ago

Facebook

Anarch157a 8y ago

Petrobras, the Brazilian oil company is the largest company in the country by number of employees and revenue. Two of the largest banks here, Banco do Brasil and Caixa Economica Federal are both federally owned and both are larger than their private competitors, thanks to a couple of monopolie they hold (BB has a stranglehold on financing agriculture, and CEF operates the lotteries).