A detailed and punchy report here about the urgent need to scale back and deconcentrate Big Finance.

US pharmaceutical companies demanded that the UK pay them more for drugs, because the terms weren't as profitable for them in as the EU. Now they're demanding that EU countries pay them more. There is a word for this. It's a nasty one that begins with "b".

"CES 2026 was the “year of robotics” in the same way that somebody is a sailor because they wore a captain’s hat while sitting in a cardboard box."

Interesting take on Ireland which says there are too many data centres for the power supply. "You can’t have a green transition that’s genuinely independent if it’s dictated by the needs of monopolistic tech companies."

More farming takes place in the South but more profits are captured in the North (and tax havens), this paper says.

Trump’s economic warfare presents us with an opportunity - let’s take back control from the Big Tech monopolists. Brilliant by Cory Doctorow 👇 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Why do a handful of global firms dominate farming and what can we do about it? Critical Takes talks to @jennifer-clapp.bsky.social about the problem of Big Agriculture, the spread of "digital farming" and why we need a new model for growing our food. Listen here: criticaltakes.org/society-and-...

Let's stand together to fight corporate power in 2026! Wish you all peace, love and inspiration. In solidarity, The team at Corporate Europe Observatory

The US has won its war on minimum taxes for profit-shifting MNCs, backed by the G7 - including the UK. How much revenue will the UK lose? @hmtreasury refuses to release its estimate. We estimate countries may forego ~$40bn annually (~$6bn from just 6 US tech giants) taxwatchuk.org/a-blank-cheq...

Our new project visualises extractive capitalism in the Caribbean. Slavery & colonialism aren’t things that happened far away & long ago. We continue to live with their consequences. 🧵 Here’s how empire shapes Barbados, Britain & the world. visualising-extractive-capitalism.common-wealth.org

OECD countries, including EU countries & the UK, just forfeited to Trump their sovereign right to tax businesses operating within their own borders. This is an alarming subjugation of state sovereignty – and yet it is being spun as a landmark tax deal. taxjustice.net/press/oecd-c...

What do you think of Critical Takes on Corporate Power? If you're from civil society and you find the platform useful, please send in your comments (see link below). Your feedback will influence the direction of Critical Takes in 2026. criticaltakes.org/the-corporat...

I've been thinking through 'polycrisis', finding its rise and fall helpful to think with. The Transition Security Project invited me to bend those ideas their way, and I'm very pleased with how they turned out: transitionsecurity.org/polycrisis-a...

🚨Exposed: how a secretive alliance of US companies is working to tear down the CSDDD. They: - Aimed to get “the most extreme position” in the European Parliament - Worked to mobilise pressure from non-EU countries - Paid for a think tank report Full analysis: www.somo.nl/the-secretiv...

Patent Box tax breaks are a costly public subsidy to corporations which don't need them Nice to see @taxjustice.net featuring the report by @taxwatch.bsky.social on the UK's £2 billion Patent Box, £486m of which goes to one company. To which I contributed (sorry, got to bang the drum nowadays).

So the World Health Organisation wants Big Pharma to sell weight-loss drugs for less profit, so as to counter a diet crisis driven by Big Junk Food. www.theguardian.com/society/2025... www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Great look at corporate intellectual monopolies here: how Big Pharma "controls the infrastructure of innovation itself". And corporations can blackmail states for tax breaks and other subsidies by threatening to move their "innovation" abroad. But note the approaching "patent cliff"...

New OECD data, just out today: For the third year running, the average global corporate tax rate *increased* - and more countries now *raise* than lower their corporate taxes. This follows the adoption of the global minimum tax and essentially reverses four decades of racing to the bottom.

The British media has an annoying habit of calling any tax rise a "raid". "Raiding" paid for the streets those journalists walk on, the trains they ride, the parks where they stroll, etc. So why say "raid"? 1. Free-market dogma has eaten into their souls. 2. It fits neatly into a headline.

"We are not at all like Enron", says the most valuable listed company in the world. NVIDIA is not Enron. Enron were fraudsters. But NVIDIA is balancing atop what looks like a giant bubble ...

What do you think of Critical Takes on Corporate Power? If you're from civil society and you find Critical Takes useful, please send in your comments. (See the link below for details on how to do this). Your views will influence Critical Takes in 2026. criticaltakes.org/the-corporat...

Don't like private equity? This very readable take argues that: 1. The bad social impacts of PE aren't necessarily much different from extractive big business in general. 2. In the US, PE has extracted so much profit from its assets that it now struggles to sell them on to others.

A big new scientific study underlines the role of corporate power in pushing ultra-processed foods which pose a major threat to public health. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

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...

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... If you like what you read on Critical Takes, please share it!

"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. 1/2 uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/concent...

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

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...

(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/... If you like what you read or hear on Critical Takes, please share with others.

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)

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.

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... ... 1/2

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...

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-prof...

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

A must-read here for NGOs which engage with big business. How corporations work to capture multi-stakeholder initiatives and play them off against each other.

🚨 ExxonMobil has been lobbying relentlessly to take down the EU’s CSDDD. Its playbook? - Lobbying - Funding think tanks - Media sponsorships ⚠️The EU cannot let those causing the climate crisis write the rules to get out of it. www.somo.nl/how-big-oil-kills-sustainability-and-climate-legislation/

Big pharma is at war with the UK. If we want to save the NHS, we can’t back down. By me 👇 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Ah yes, nothing says "I'm a European company committed to Europe" like "Cut regulations or we we'll let Europe's economy tank". Such Europeans, brings tears to my eyes.

The AI bubble, thinking radically, monopolies in Africa and a new name and mission for Publish What You Pay. The latest Critical Takes newsletter is out! criticaltakes.org/newsletters/... If you'd like to get the latest once a month in your inbox, sign up here: criticaltakes.org/newsletters/

Truly, this is where even capitalism's greatest cheerleaders must admit it fails utterly

Fascinating (and worrying) analysis, with some grounds for optimism - and potentially a number of warnings for the UN #TaxConvention negotiations...