Nader, Ralph and Taylor, William. The Big Boys: Power and Position in American Business. New York: Pantheon Books, 1986. 571 pages.

Ralph Nader is still a liberal, which makes it amazing that he still does good research. If he were to concentrate his commitment, skills, and resources on issues involving the national security state, they'd have to shut him down. But as it is, America's foremost consumer advocate believes that the system merely needs some fine tuning and rational tax policies, based on an enlightened appreciation of capitalism's long-term interests. There are no inevitable conflicts of interest in Nader's repertoire.

This book, based on exhaustive research and copiously documented, provides portraits of nine corporate executives, each in separate chapters: David Roderick (U.S. Steel), Roger Smith (General Motors), Paul Oreffice (Dow Chemical), Felix Rohatyn (investment banker), Charls Walker (tax lobbyist), Whitney MacMillan (Cargill), Thomas Jones (Northrop), William McGowan (MCI), and William Norris (Control Data). The chapter on Cargill is fascinating, both for what it reveals and what it couldn't. Privately-held Cargill is the world's largest grain trader, one of the largest flour millers, and its second-largest meatpacker. Extracting information from them is next to impossible. A year after Nader started, a Cargill vice president still didn't believe that Nader's sleuths had managed to include some former Cargill employees among the 175 people they interviewed.
ISBN 0-394-53338-0

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