Who Owns the World?

World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, 2011

By Nick Buxton, Transnational Institute, January 27, 2012

This week as the world's elites met in the swiss skiing village of Davos, Transational Institute's (TNI) Corporate Power project launched a series of powerful infographics, to expose the Global 0.001%, the corporations they run and the cost of corporate power.

The infographics can be seen here: http://www.tni.org/report/state-corporate-power-2012

Some of the most compelling stats that stand out from the infographics are:
• 8 of the top 10 richest companies in the world are fossil fuel companies
• 1% of the world's companies, almost all banks, control 40% of the shares of the world's major corporations
• 0.15% of the world's population control two-thirds of world GDP, and with their assets could pay the costs of universal and primary school education for 190 year.
• A tiny percentage of the global population, 0.001%, control $15.4 trillion dollars.