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The Raging 2020s

Page 36

by Alec Ross


  While less than 15 percent of Australian workers: “Collective Bargaining Coverage,” Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, accessed August 14, 2020, https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=CBC.

  Even in the United Kingdom: “Strengthening Our NHS,” Conservative Party, accessed August 14, 2020, https://www.conservatives.com/our-priorities/nhs.

  In 1968, South Korea had a lower GDP: “GDP per Capita (Current US$)—Korea, Rep., Ghana, Japan, United States,” World Bank, accessed July 27, 2020, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?end=2019&locations=KR-GH-JP-US&start=1960&view=chart.

  The military seized control of the country: “South Korea—Timeline,” BBC News, May 1, 2018, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-15292674.

  After watching Japan’s rapid growth: Peter Pae, “South Korea’s Chaebol,” Bloomberg, August 29, 2019, https://www.bloomberg.com/quicktake/republic-samsung.

  Samsung, the largest of these conglomerates: Will Kenton, “Chaebol Structure,” Investopedia, September 29, 2019, https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/chaebol-structure.asp.

  In 2018, the K-pop group BTS: Xander Zellner, “BTS Becomes First K-Pop Act to Hit No. 1 on Billboard Artist 100 Chart,” Billboard, May 20, 2018, https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/8458534/bts-first-k-pop-act-hit-no-1-artist-100-chart.

  seven of the world’s eleven longest-serving: Dave Lawler, “How the World’s Longest-Serving Leaders Keep Power, and Hand It Over,” Axios, March 21, 2019, https://www.axios.com/worlds-longest-serving-leaders-africa-putin-8046c3c0-3cef-4166-bd1a-46533f1b46a4.html.

  The median age is only twenty years old: Jacob Ausubel, “Populations Skew Older in Some of the Countries Hit Hard by COVID-19,” Pew Research Center, April 22, 2020, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/04/22/populations-skew-older-in-some-of-the-countries-hit-hard-by-covid-19/.

  Over the next three decades: “World Population Prospects 2019,” United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, accessed January 3, 2020, https://population.un.org/wpp/Graphs/Probabilistic/POP/TOT/903.

  Already, people in the Sahel region: Ahmadou Aly Mbaye, “Africa’s Climate Crisis, Conflict, and Migration Challenges,” Africa in Focus (blog), Brookings Institution, September 20, 2019, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/africa-in-focus/2019/09/20/africas-climate-crisis-conflict-and-migration-challenges/; Kanta Kumari Rigaud, Alex de Sherbinin, Bryan Jones, Jonas Bergmann, Viviane Clement, Kayly Ober, Jacob Schewe, Susana Adamo, Brent McCusker, Silke Heuser, and Amelia Midgley, Groundswell: Preparing for Internal Climate Migration (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018), https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/29461.

  seventy million people displaced: “More Than 70 Million Displaced World wide, Says UNHCR,” BBC News, June 19, 2019, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-48682783.

  all but fourteen of Africa’s fifty-four countries: Abdi Latif Dahir, “These Are the African Countries Not Signed to China’s Belt and Road Project,” Quartz, September 30, 2019, https://qz.com/africa/1718826/the-african-countries-not-signed-to-chinas-belt-and-road-plan/.

  The Belt and Road projects often come with strings attached: Mark Green, “China’s Debt Diplomacy,” Foreign Policy, April 25, 2019, https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/04/25/chinas-debt-diplomacy/.

  In 2017, the government of Guinea-Conakry: Saliou Samb, “China to Loan Guinea $20 Billion to Secure Aluminum Ore,” Reuters, September 6, 2017, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-guinea-mining-china/china-to-loan-guinea-20-billion-to-secure-aluminum-ore-idUSKCN1BH1YT.

  China constructed its first overseas naval base: Max Bearak, “In Strategic Djibouti, a Microcosm of China’s Growing Foothold in Africa,” Washington Post, December 30, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/in-strategic-djibouti-a-microcosm-of-chinas-growing-foothold-in-africa/2019/12/29/a6e664ea-beab-11e9-a8b0-7ed8a0d5dc5d_story.html; Mailyn Fidler, “African Union Bugged by China: Cyber Espionage as Evidence of Strategic Shifts,” Net Politics (blog), Council on Foreign Relations, March 7, 2018, https://www.cfr.org/blog/african-union-bugged-china-cyber-espionage-evidence-strategic-shifts.

  The governments of at least a dozen African countries: Steven Feldstein, The Global Expansion of AI Surveillance (Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, September 17, 2019), https://carnegieendowment.org/2019/09/17/global-expansion-of-ai-surveillance-pub-79847.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I relied on a group of essential family, friends, and advisers who offered wisdom, judgment, and support throughout the writing process. Foremost among the many are my wife, Felicity, and brother, Steve. Nothing is more important to me than family, and Felicity and Steve protected and sustained our family as the 2020s began to rage.

  I must also single out Max Bergami, Robert Bole, Jared Cohen, Ben Scott, Sheel Tyle, and Ari Wallach. Without their friendship and support on things big and small I would not have made it through these last several years in one piece. They are indispensable friends and partners.

  I am profoundly grateful to UTA’s Pilar Queen and Holt’s Serena Jones. Pilar has fought for me and for this book since I introduced the idea of it to her. She is a savvy, passionate advocate for her authors and I am lucky to be among them. Serena was the perfect editor. She gave me the freedom and encouragement I needed to produce a manuscript along with the guidance and expertise to make it a much better, more disciplined work. She brought just the right combination of head and heart to our book. Among Serena’s colleagues at Henry Holt and Company, I am especially grateful to Amy Einhorn, Maggie Richards, Marian Brown, Caitlin O’Shaughnessy, Sarah Crichton, Pat Eisemann, Anita Sheih, Devon Mazzone, and Maia Sacca-Schaeffer.

  Jack Corrigan and Jonathan Cox worked with me from what was just the beginning of an idea and turned it into this book. Jack brought passion, persistence, a perpetually positive attitude, and journalistic excellence to the project. He is the latest of Northwestern University’s stars of journalism. Jonathan Cox immersed himself in my vision, intent, and content and then understood better than me what it would take to produce a great book. He is a master of understanding a book’s architecture and how to construct something with both a foundation and flourish.

  I drew on the skills of a great many researchers to help turn ideas into thoroughly researched prose. They include Amy Martyn, Leigh Giangreco, Matthew Spector, and Will Peischel.

  I completed this book while serving as a distinguished visiting professor at the business school of the University of Bologna, the world’s oldest university, founded by students in the year 1088. The dean of Bologna Business School, Max Bergami, is an inspirational leader and friend. He has built a remarkable institution with a team I am blessed to be a part of, and I offer special thanks to those who have been so helpful to me, including Emanuele Bajo, Giulia Beltramelli, Barbara Biondi, Anna Pia Chiarandini, Michele Ferrari, Riccardo Fini, Roberto Grandi, Ludovia Leone, Andrea Lipparini, Ilaria Manghi, Alfredo Montanari, Gabriele Morandin, Eloisa Palacio, Francesco Porro, Giorgio Prodi, Marcello Russo, Massimo Sideri, Maurizio Sobrero, Augusto Valeriani, and Alessandra Zammit.

  Also from my life in Italy I must offer special thanks for the friendship and guidance of Enzo, Domitilla, and Lorenzo Benigni; Riccardo Busi; Marco Checchi; Max Ciociola; Gianluca D’Agostino; Paolo Dalla Mora; Luca della Godenza; Valerio De Molli; Gabriele and Giovanni Domenichini; Michelangelo Fasoli; Carlo Feltrinelli; Karin Fischer; Giuseppe Fontana; Rosanna Gaja; Marco Lombardo; Monica Maggioni; Paola Manes; Maurizio Molinari; Alessandro Monti; Bruno and Matteo Riffeser Monti; Mattia Mor; Giulio Napolitano; Giovanna Pancheri; Giacomo Pescatore; Andrea Petremoli; Romano Prodi; Massimo Redaelli; Gianni Riotta; Sara Roversi; Germano Scarpa; Filippo Sensi; Jack Sintini; Maurizio Tamagnini; Massimiliano Tarantino; Francesco Ubertini; Armando Varricchio; and Dario Zanotti.

  Thank you for the continued partnership from the team representing me at United Talent Agency, including Don Epstein, Kristen Sena, Evan Martino, Michael Steele, Jennifer Peykar, David Buchalter, Charlotte Perm
an, and Mike D’Andrea.

  Thank you to Bobby Duffy and his colleagues at the Policy Institute of King’s College London for access to your tremendous research resources and expertise.

  I must acknowledge one of the spiritual fathers of the words in this book: Brunello Cucinelli. Brunello has built a multibillion-dollar business while demonstrating that it can be done in service to the broadest possible stakeholder community. I appreciate his friendship and guidance and that of his colleagues and family members, including Camilla and Carolina Cucinelli, Riccardo Stefanelli, Alessio Piastrelli, Francesco Tomassini, and Francesco Bottigliero.

  And a final, heartfelt thank-you to the nearly one hundred people who sat for interviews, offered analysis of our complicated world, and reviewed my text for accuracy and completeness. Any credit is shared with them and any shortcomings or errors are my own.

  INDEX

  The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your e-book. Please use the search function on your e-reading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

  Abbott Laboratories

  Abercrombie & Fitch

  AB InBev

  accountability

  activist investing

  Adidas

  Affordable Care Act

  Afghanistan, Soviet invasion of

  AFL-CIO

  Africa. See also specific countries

  China and

  Chinese model and

  climate change and

  closed systems and

  corruption in

  democracy in

  open vs. closed systems in

  population explosion in

  social contract in

  tax avoidance and

  tax havens and

  African Union

  Afwerki, Isaias

  agriculture

  AI ethics

  Airbnb

  airline industry

  Alabama

  al-Assad, Bashar

  Alexander, Douglas

  Alibaba

  Alipay

  Alphabet Inc.. See also Google

  Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America

  Amazon

  American Airlines

  American Federation of Labor

  Andrés, José

  Android

  Anduril Industries

  Angola

  Anguilla

  anti-monopoly measures

  antitrust protections. See anti-monopoly measures

  anti-union laws

  Apple

  apps. See also specific apps

  arms control

  Arms Export Control Act

  artificial intelligence (AI)

  Ascani family

  Asia. See also specific countries

  AT&T

  Australia

  Austria

  authoritarianism

  automation. See also artificial intelligence (AI)

  Bahamas

  Baidu

  Baltimore Teachers Union

  Bank of England

  Bank Sepah International

  Banting, Frederick

  Barclays bank

  Bargaining for the Common Good

  base erosion

  Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Project (BEPS 2.0)

  beer companies

  Beijing Kunlun Tech

  Belomorkanal

  Belt and Road Initiative

  benefit corporations (“B Corps”)

  Benioff, Marc

  Bermuda

  Best, Charles

  Bezos, Jeff

  Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

  Billboard Artist 100 chart

  biotechnology

  BlackRock

  Blair, Tony

  Blankfein, Lloyd

  BMW

  Boeing

  Bork, Robert

  Boyd, Cindy Scherer

  Boyd, Jesy

  Brandeis, Louis

  Bremmer, Ian

  British East India Company

  British Empire. See also United Kingdom

  British Labour Party

  British Parliament

  British South Africa Company

  British Virgin Islands

  Brown, Gordon

  BTS

  Buddhist temples

  Budweiser

  Burundi

  businesses, power of. See also corporate power

  Business Roundtable

  Butz, Earl

  California

  California State University San Marcos

  Calvin Klein

  Cambridge University

  Cameron, David

  Cameroon

  campaign finance laws

  Canada

  capital, nonproductive uses of

  capitalism. See also shareholder capitalism; stakeholder capitalism

  competition and

  destructive aspects of

  triumph over communism

  Capone, Al

  Caribbean. See also specific countries

  Carney, Mark

  Carson, Johnnie

  Carter, Ash

  Carthy, Matt

  Castro, Fidel

  Cayman Islands

  cellular frequencies. See also 5G

  Central Bank of China

  CEOs. See also specific CEOs

  compensation for

  diplomacy skills and

  diversity initiatives and

  short-term planning and

  Charter Communications

  Chemical Footprint Project

  Chevrolet

  child-labor prevention

  Chile

  China

  AI and

  authoritarianism and

  cheap manufacturing in

  closed systems and

  cyber war and

  government and private sector in

  hardware from

  private sector in

  race for technological dominance and

  surveillance and

  technology transfer and

  Western technology companies and

  Chinese Communist Party

  Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference

  Chouinard, Malinda

  Chouinard, Yvon

  Chouinard Equipment Ltd.

  Christensen, John

  Chrysler

  CIA (Central Intelligence Agency)

  Cisco Systems

  Citigroup

  Citizens United decision

  City of London Corporation

  Civil War (US)

  climate change

  closed systems

  CloudWalk Technology

  Coca-Cola

  Code War. See also cyber war

  Cohen, Jared

  Cold War

  end of

  Collip, James

  colonial history

  Columbia Law School

  Comcast Corporation

  Commerce Department

  Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States

  Commonwealth countries

  companies, power of. See corporate power

  competition, capitalism and

  concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs)

  Corley, Andrea

  Corley, Gabriella

  Corley family

  corporate autocracy

  corporate farming

  corporate impact, measuring

  corporate power

  checks on

  diversity initiatives and

  government leadership and

  government policy and

  market consolidation and

  New Deal–era checks on

  rise in

  corporate raiders

  corporate socialism

  corporate tax, developing nations and

  corporations. See also corporate power; specific corporations

  anti
-union behavior of

  cybersecurity and

  foreign policy and

  government bailouts for

  philanthropy and

  principles of

  regulations and

  social contract and

  social responsibility and

  tax havens and

  wartime and

  worker equity in

  COVID-19

  Cowper-Coles, Sherard

  Cucinelli, Brunello

  cyber-military-industrial complex

  cybersecurity

  cyber war

  Daimler-Benz

  data

  Daws, Gavan

  Defense Digital Service

  De Grisogono

  Delaware

  Delmarva Peninsula

  Deloitte

  Delta Air Lines

  democracy

  vs. authoritarianism

  generational attitudes toward

  inefficiency of

  social contract and

  surveillance and

  Democrats

  De Niro, Robert

  Denmark

  developing nations. See also specific countries

  open vs. closed systems in

  social contract in

  tax havens and

  diabetes

  Dickens, Charles

  Didi Chuxing

  digital revolution

  diplomacy

  Ditka, Mike

  diversity initiatives

  Doctorow, Cory

  Dodd-Frank Act

  Dokolo, Sindika

  Dolber, Brian

  Dominican Republic, corporate tax rate in

  Donne, John

  dos Santos, Isabel

  dos Santos, José Eduardo

  dos Santos, José Filomeno

  “Double Irish” profit sharing

  Drivers Bill of Rights

  “Dutch Sandwich” profit sharing

  East Asia. See also specific countries

  East India Company. See British East India Company

  eBay

  economic concentration

  economic crises

  Edelman, R. David

  Einstein, Albert

  El-Erian, Mohamed

 

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