Juha-Pekka Raeste & Hannu Sokala: Maailman 50 vaarallisinta yhtiötä (“The World’s 50 Most Dangerous Companies”) (2020, 2022)

Reporters Sokala and Raeste have written (in Finnish) what is essentially a “Who’s Who” of corporate giants. As the name suggests, the book lists the world’s most dangerous companies, though the final result is necessarily the authors' subjective view. Additionally, for example, Visa and Mastercard are such similar companies that, just for the sake of variety, only one was chosen to be included.

In any case, predictably included are, for example, firms in the petrochemical industry and private military contractors, but also a significant number of various financial institutions. In the Top 5, we find Google, Tencent, Amazon, and Facebook, whose danger is based, of course, on how they seek not only to know all possible data about their users but also to stifle competition through, for example, predatory pricing or simply buying competitors out of the market. These billion-dollar companies can also afford to break all possible laws; for instance, Google easily pays off even large multi-million fines with just a few hours of its operating profit. With a practically endless cash reserve, it’s also nice to lobby for favorable laws while simultaneously pursuing world domination through artificial intelligence.

The text flows smoothly and doesn’t dwell on any one company for too long. However, the subject matter of the work is inherently so heavy that I didn’t feel like reading more than a couple of chapters a day. Still, this is quite an educational and recommended reading experience! 📚📔📖