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	Is the world’s economy run by a small number of companies? by Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich Switzerland   October 2011   Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, have published a paper that argues just 147 companies account for a large share of the total economic value of all the transnational companies around the world. Among the top 50 corporations, 45 operate within the financial industry.   The United States takes home first prize with 24 companies in the researchers’ top 50 list, followed by the U.K. with 8, France with 5, Japan with 4, and Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands tying with 2 companies each.   The research suggests “a large portion of control flows to a small tightly-knit core of financial institutions,” authors Stefania Vitali, James Glattfelder and Stefano Battiston wrote in their study entitled: The network of global corporate control.   “This core can be seen as an economic "super-entity" that raises important issues for policy makers.”   While the authors note that many in the worlds of academia and the media already believe the world’s economy is run by a small number of companies, there was no actual data to back it up. So they set out to study the elaborate ownership structures of 43,060 transnational companies, eventually uncovering more than one million ownership ties within that network.   The authors believe this level of control among a small number of players has a significant impact on the world’s economic health. The 147 companies in the “core” control 40 per cent of the total economic value of all transnational corporations.   “The top ranked actors hold a control ten times bigger than what could be expected based on their wealth,” the authors noted.   The intense interconnection and concentration of power weakens market competition as players form blocs, according to the study. There’s another drawback to those close links, particularly among the banks: when one runs into problems its woes spread quickly to the others.   * Visit the link below for more details. Visit the related web page
	Bangladesh: Climate Change to Increase Hunger and Malnutrition by Juhie Bhatia Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting   This post was commissioned as part of a Pulitzer Center/Global Voices Online series on Food Insecurity. These reports draw on multimedia reporting featured on the Pulitzer Gateway to Food Insecurity and bloggers discussing the issues worldwide.   As the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP17) in Durban, South Africa, starts today, experts are warning that among climate change''s greatest consequences in developing countries such as Bangladesh are risks to the agriculture sector, including an increased risk of hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity.   Forecasts predict that climate change could reduce agricultural production and increase food prices, raising the risk of hunger and malnutrition. A World Food Programme report says that by 2050, climate change is expected to increase the number of hungry people by 20 percent, and the number of malnourished children is expected to increase by at least 24 million, 21 percent more than without the effect of climate change.   Much of the increase is expected in Sub-Saharan Africa and parts of South Asia and Central America. Already, the report says, natural disasters are more frequent and intense, land and water are becoming more scarce and difficult to access and it is getting harder to improve agricultural productivity.   At least ten countries are highly vulnerable to a climate-related food crisis, an ActionAid report released last month showed. Among the five most vulnerable countries, alongside the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, South Africa and Haiti, is Bangladesh. Composed largely of low-lying land and islands with a high density population, little arable land, and frequent natural disasters, Bangladesh has been described as the “''ground zero'' at the intersection of climate change and food security” by bloggers from the World Bank and Aid Data.   Mirza Galib, a lecturer at Bangladesh''s Primeasia University, expands on the potential implications in The Daily Star: Scientists tell us that the most profoundly damaging impact of climate change in Bangladesh will take form in floods, salinity intrusion and droughts, all of which will drastically affect crop productivity and food security. We will also face riverbank erosion, sea water level rise and lack of fresh water in the coastal zones.   The prognosis is more extreme floods in a country already devastated by floods, less food for our country in which half our children already don''t have enough to eat, and less clean water in areas where waterborne diseases are already responsible for 24 percent of all deaths.   Bangladesh has made progress in reducing hunger, with its number of undernourished people dropping to 27 percent as of January 2011, and its annual rice production tripling over three decades. But since agriculture is a key economic industry, making up nearly 20 percent of Bangladesh''s gross domestic product (GDP) and 65 percent of the labor force according to a World Bank report, climate change threatens to erode these gains.   A blog post on Farming First elaborates: Climate change is predicted to reduce rice production, Bangladesh’s main crop, and increase the country’s reliance on other crops and imported food grains. Crop production is potentially set to decline for at least one crop in each region...Overall, agricultural GDP in Bangladesh is projected to be 3.1 percent lower each year as a result of climate change.   While the Bangladeshi government has some good adaptation plans in place, to further help combat climate change''s impact on agriculture, the ActionAid report calls for efforts such as greater investment in small farms in poor countries, the immediate delivery of "climate cash" to help poor farmers climate-proof their agriculture, creating a system of pan-regional food reserves, and binding cuts in rich countries’ carbon emissions.   The World Food Programme report estimates that substantial international action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions could halve the increase of hunger from climate change.   ActionAid also wants to eliminate biofuel targets that are driving “land grabs” in developing countries. In a September roundtable session with bloggers, former United States President Bill Clinton said he opposed countries such as China and Saudi Arabia buying and leasing land in developing countries, as this undermines long-term agricultural sustainability. Instead, he proposed a food sustainability model to improve food security and help developing countries build their own agricultural capacity. During the session he said:   The U.S. and Canada and Europe, because we have the capacity to produce big [food] surpluses, and Brazil and Argentina, the only places on Earth with 20 feet of topsoil. . . we should offer longer-term contracts to the Chinese, the Saudis and others for basic grains at prices that will guarantee decent profits, but not exorbitant ones, and stop price spikes but keep prices high enough to get investment into agricultural activities in Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia. . . . Until you develop a sustainable agricultural framework in these countries, they are not going to benefit.   * Visit the link for more details. Visit the related web page
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