Dirt Diggers Digest No. 58
January 24, 2005
Editor: Philip Mattera
1. Blogs as a corporate research tool
2. EWG reveals federal water subsidy recipients in California
3. New corporate slavery disclosure
4. Bureau van Dijk expands business information offerings
5. Critical books on corporations
6. Fifty years of the Fortune 500
7. WorldCom litigation website
8. U.S. government teaches business ethics to former socialists
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1. Blogs as a corporate research tool
Taking place in Seattle this week is the Blog Business Summit
<http://blogbusinesssummit.com/>, an event designed for individuals
who are trying to make a living from publishing a web log and for
companies that are seeking to use blogs to promote their products
and services.
As long as blogs were little more than the online diaries of opinionated
and verbose individuals, they were of little interest for corporate
researchers. But today large companies are jumping on the blog
bandwagon and using the medium for marketing and communications
purposes. In addition, individuals (some disgruntled) within large companies
are creating blogs that might provide insight into corporate strategies or
questionable behavior (though prudent bloggers will omit the name of their
employer). There's already at least one blog dedicated to corporate rumors
in general: Corporate Spy, which can be found at http://corporatespy.blogspot.com/.
For a primer on business blogging, see http://www.corporateblogging.info/.
For a general list of blogs, see Blogarama <http://www.blogarama.com/>
or QuackTrack <http://www.quacktrack.com/> .
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2. EWG reveals federal water subsidy recipients in California
The Environmental Working Group <www.ewg.org> recently published a
study that for the first time names the specific recipients of federal water
subsidies in California--information that was previously hidden from the public
by state law. Along with the study, which estimates that the subsidies are
worth some $416 million a year, EWG has created a database for searching
the list of recipients, which consists mainly of the state's largest farms
(see http://www.ewg.org/reports/watersubsidies/search.php?start).
EWG has also assembled an updated version of its well-known database of
U.S. farm subsidies (http://www.ewg.org/farm/findings.php), and the group
reported recently that comparable data will soon be available in the United
Kingdom (http://www.ewg.org/issues/agriculture/20050107/index.php).
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3. New corporate slavery disclosure
J. P. Morgan Chase & Co. filed a disclosure statement with the
City of Chicago last week acknowledging that two of its
predecessor banks--Citizens Bank and Canal Bank, both of
Louisiana--had accepted thousands of slaves as collateral on
loans made in the 19th Century. The banks were antecedents
of Bank One, which Morgan purchased last year.
The disclosure was based on what the bank said were 3,500
person-hours of research that went into the preparation of a report
posted on the web at http://www2.bankone.com/presents/home/ .
The work was undertaken to comply with an ordinance passed by
the Chicago City Council in 2002 requiring companies that do business
with the city to determine any historical links to slavery. Lehman
Brothers filed such a disclosure with the city in 2003.
Los Angeles followed the lead of Chicago and instituted a similar
disclosure requirement for contractors in 2003; Detroit followed suit
in 2004. All of these followed a pioneering slavery disclosure bill
applying to insurance companies that took effect in California in 2001.
See http://www.insurance.ca.gov/SEIR/main.htm.
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4. Bureau van Dijk expands business information offerings
Bureau van Dijk <www.bvdep.com>, one of the world's leading
publishers of electronic business information, has added to its list of
database offerings. A new product called INVIEW provides data on the
equity holdings of investment funds from around the world. Another new
service called AQUTE analyzes the quality of investment analyst
reports. Bureau van Dijk's products--which contain data on companies
based in North America, Europe and Japan--are sold either by subscription
or on a pay-per-view basis; free trials are available.
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5. Critical books on corporations
The Center on Corporate Policy has assembled a handy list of some 100
books that contain a critical approach to corporations and corporate power
(http://www.corporatepolicy.org/issues/books.htm). The most recent of
these is THE PEOPLE'S BUSINESS: CONTROLLING CORPORATIONS
AND RESTORING DEMOCRACY by Lee Drutman and Charlie Cray, the
latter being the director of the Center and a charter subscriber to the
Dirt Diggers Digest. The book, which represents a report by the Citizen
Works Corporate Reform Commission, deals with issues such as
challenging the corporate claim to constitutional rights and the need for
a serious crackdown on corporate crime. For more details, see:
http://www.bkconnection.com/ProdDetails.asp?ID=1576753093&PG=1&Type=AUTH&PCS=BKP
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6. Fifty years of the Fortune 500
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of its famed list of the 500 largest U.S.
corporations, Fortune magazine has compiled data from all the lists into
one database on the web <www.fortune.com/500archive> The site makes
it possible to view the lists from each year and to see a list of every year
that a particular company appeared on the ranking.
One section notes that over the five decades only three different companies
have made it to the number one spot: General Motors, Exxon Mobil and
Wal-Mart Stores. Keep in mind that until 1995 the main list consisted
exclusively of industrial companies, and service firms were ranked in
separate lists by category.
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7. WorldCom litigation website
If you want details and documents on the major class action securities lawsuit
against onetime telecom highflyer WorldCom--including the recent landmark
settlement involving the firm's former directors--the place to go is a site called
WorldCom Securities Litigation put up by one of the law firms involved
(http://www.worldcomlitigation.com).
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8. U.S. government teaches business ethics to former socialists
The U.S. Commerce Department, seeking to promote appropriate
standards of behavior for entrepreneurs in those countries new to
capitalism, has published a volume called BUSINESS ETHICS:
A MANUAL FOR MANAGING A RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS
ENTERPRISE IN EMERGING MARKET ECONOMIES (online at
http://www.ita.doc.gov/media/Publications/pdf/04BusinessEthics.pdf).
The 355-page volume, a product of the Department's Good Governance
Program, has numerous references to environmental issues (including
the concept of a triple bottom line), but when it comes to labor unions
it hedges. In a section titled "You Decide," the handbook notes the ILO
standard on collective bargaining but hastens to add: "In at least one
country in East Asia, employee unions are forbidden." Apparently, it
can be ethical to deny the rights of one's employees to form a union.
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A cumulative list of resources featured in the
Dirt Diggers Digest can be found on the web at:
http://www.corp-research.org/dirt_diggers_index.htm
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Philip Mattera
Research Director & Director of the Corporate Research Project
Good Jobs First