Soulless Survivor

For how long have antiglobalists feared giant corporations? Well, Irish satirist Samuel Madden predicted that two companies would eventually control the world economy in his Memoirs of the Twentieth Century — in 1733. Now, in The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea, John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, both editors at the Economist, take a Churchillian view: corporations are the worst form of economic organization, except for all the others. The book is an entertaining romp through the highs and lows of corporations since the first compagnia appeared in 12th century Italy. An 18th century British lord complained, "Corporations have neither bodies to be punished, nor souls to be condemned; they therefore do as they like." The authors see a new era of corporate self-restraint, but recent events show how little has changed.