"The financial meltdown and economic crisis," says Weissman, "illustrates that corporations - if left to their own worst instincts - will destroy themselves and the system that nurtures them."
Although it would have been easy to restrict the 10 Worst Corporations list to Wall Street firms, the Multinational Monitor tradition is to highlight diverse forms of corporate wrongdoing. Accordingly, only one financial company, AIG, appears on the 10 Worst list.
A brief summary of each companies' wrongdoing follows:
AIG: At the center of the financial meltdown, AIG has already sucked up more than $150 billion in taxpayer supports.
Cargill: The grain trade giant profiteered from the food price spike early in 2008.
Chevron: Chevron is urging the U.S. government to pressure Ecuador to quash a lawsuit that could cost it more than $7 billion.
Constellation Energy: Constellation aims to build the first nuclear reactor in the United States since Three Mile Island.
CNPC: The Sudanese relationship with the Chinese National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) is fueling the violence in Darfur.
Dole: Dole contract workers in the Philippines are paid about $1.85 a day, according to labor researchers.
GE: GE fired an attorney who claimed the company was engaging in a tax evasion scheme in Brazil.
Imperial Sugar: A preventable explosion at an Imperial Sugar refinery in Georgia killed 14.
Philip Morris International: The company plans to subvert the most important policies to reduce smoking and the toll from tobacco-related disease.
Roche: Rather than sell an AIDS drug at a reduced but profitable price in Korea, Roche refuses to make the drug available.
Multinational Monitor is a bi-monthly magazine that reports on the global economy.
