The whole difficulty I think that that we're facing now is the question of who is going to ensure that corporations are accountable. The problem with leaving it to activists and non-governmental organizations-even with the tool of the Internet at their disposal-is that those organizations and those people don't have the legal right to compel corporations to disclose information, and that is something that governments can do.

Corporations now govern society, perhaps more than governments themselves do; yet ironically, it is their very power, much of which they have gained through economic globalization, that makes them vulnerable.

A century and a half after its birth, the modern business corporation, an artificial person made in the image of a human psychopath, now is seeking to remake real people in its image.

Goodwin has done the seemingly impossible-he has made economics comprehensible and funny.

The corporation, like the psychopathic personality it resembles, is programmed to exploit others for profit.

The corporation was originally conceived as a public institution whose purpose was to serve national interests and advance the public good.

As a psychopathic creature, the corporation can neither recognize nor act upon moral reasons to refrain from harming others.