DAVID J. ROTHKOPF

The world's largest company, Wal-Mart Stores, has revenues higher than the GDP of all but twenty-five of the world's countries. Its employees outnumber the populations of almost a hundred nations. The world's largest asset manager, a secretive New York company called Black Rock, controls assets greater than the national reserves of any country on the planet. A private philanthropy, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, spends as much worldwide on health care as the World Health Organization. The rise of private power may be the most important and least understood trend of our time. "Power, Inc." provides a fresh, timely look at how we have reached a point where thousands of companies have greater power than all but a handful of states. Beginning with the story of how an inquisitive Swedish goat inadvertently triggered the birth of the oldest company still in existence, "Power, Inc." follows the rise and fall of kings and empires, the making of great fortunes, and the chaos of bloody revolutions. A fast-paced tale in which champions of liberty are revealed to be paid pamphleteers of moneyed interests and greedy scoundrels trigger changes that have lifted billions from deprivation, "Power, Inc." traces the bruising jockeying for influence right up to today's financial crises, growing inequality, broken international system, and battles over the proper role of government and markets. David Rothkopf argues that these recent developments, coupled with the rise of powers like China and India, may not lead to the triumph of American capitalism that was celebrated just a few years ago. Instead, he considers an unexpected scenario, a contest among competing capitalisms offering different visions for how the world should work, a global ideological struggle in which European and Asian models may have important advantages. An important look at the power struggle that is defining our times, "Power, Inc." also offers critical insights into how to succeed in the years ahead.

Lejos de enfoques sensacionalistas, Superclass realiza un apasionante análisis del papel que tiene en nuestras vidas la nueva élite global que nos gobierna. Son seis mil en un mundo de seis mil millones, poderosos procedentes de diversos ámbitos que dirigen gobiernos, finanzas, corporaciones internacionales, medios de comunicación, movimientos religiosos y, en la sombra, organizaciones criminales y terroristas. Sus decisiones crean o destruyen empleos, marcan la dirección del mercado, levantan o hacen caer gobiernos. ¿Quiénes son y cómo han llegado a detentar un poder tan desmesurado? ¿Contribuyen a la estabilidad de gobiernos y economías? ¿Existe una relación entre la desigual distribución de riqueza y la desigual distribución de poder? Un título de lectura imprescindible para todos aquellos que desean prepararse para un futuro en el que la naciones-estado no serán capaces de garantizar los derechos humanos tal como los conocemos.