Well - it’s not earth shattering news that the Fair Trade Movement and Occupy Wall Street are trying to rebalance power to give a fair chance to most of us on the planet.  But here is a really interesting analysis of the largest transnational companies and their influence on the global economy.  These are great numbers that back up what they are saying in Zuccotti Park, in cities all over the US, and all over the world now in the “Occupy” movement”: that economic power is centralized and the few hold most of the power.  “But the study, by a trio of complex systems theorists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, is the first to go beyond ideology to empirically identify such a network of power.”

The Capitalist Network That Runs The World

“The 1318 transnational corporations that form the core of the economy. Superconnected companies are red, very connected companies are yellow. The size of the dot represents revenue (Image: PLoS One)”

Maria Konizeski is Business Strategist specializing in consulting for social ventures and digital initiatives. She brings a wealth of insight into both the competitive advantages and challenges of the social start-up and the current state of the digital market. She holds a MBA from Simmons School of Management at Simmons College and is the recipient of the Susan Bulkeley Butler Award in Accounting. She lives in Boston, Massachusetts.