In this issue:

UK Parliamentary Committee: Re-Nationalize Railroads

Wal-Mart: World's 30th Largest Economy


From Volume 3, Issue Number 16 of Electronic Intelligence Weekly, Published Apr. 20, 2004

World Economic News

UK Parliamentary Committee: Re-Nationalize Railroads

A special parliamentary committee in Britain has recommended the return of the nation's railroads to state control. The committee assessed the role of Network Rail, the semi-private agency established to replace the defunct and incompetent private Rail Track a year ago, as "unacceptable."

Also, the second agency established last year, Strategic Rail Authority, is seen as a failure by the committee, which urges a swift return of the entire railway system to state control, not least because of the need to put an end to the chaos of structures that exist today, after various "reforms" and "counter-reforms." Renationalization is the central recommendation of the committee's report, committee chairwoman, Gwyneth Dunwoody, said at a press conference at the parliamentary building in London, April 13.

The renationalization issue will also be addressed in the very likely national strike of the RMT railway workers union at the end of April. The union currently holds a strike vote, which is generally expected to yield the required majority. RMT wants to defend the pensions, which the private rail companies want to cut, and to undo the privatization.

Wal-Mart: World's 30th Largest Economy

If Wal-Mart were a national economy, it would rank 30th in the world, right behind Saudi Arabia, the April 12 Forbes said, in a feature on the world's 2,000 leading companies. "Like it or not, the global economy will stay that way," the magazine asserted. "The Wal-Martization of the world is changing commerce around the planet, for good or ill."

According to Forbes, the leading company in the world is Citigroup, followed by GE, AIG, ExxonMobil, BP, Bank of America, HSBC, Toyota, Fannie Mae and Wal-Mart. Rounding out the top 15 are UBS, ING, Royal Dutch/Shell, Berkshire Hathaway, and J.P. Morgan Chase.

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