Next comes the section devoted to France. Here as well capitalism proves to be family based, concentrated around the ‘big’ names of the national industry. With the press barons such as Pinault (Le Point), Bolloré (Havas, free circulation press), Bouygues (TF1, Métro), Rothschild (Libération), etc. Geoffrey Geuens moreover notes that the great majority of these directors are French nationals, above all in average sized companies, ‘more closed to foreign figures.’ A little less so in the case of the conglomerates. But the foreign managers in these companies are in the majority from states with which France has close economic and diplomatic  relationships (Belgium, Germany, Italy, etc.).

Above all the majority of these companies are also active in other sectors. Armaments for Dassault, construction for Bouygues, luxury goods for Arnault, etc. And if all these names will certainly mean something to the reader, it is doubtless due to the heated debates which have broken out since the election of Nicolas Sarkozy to the Élysée palace. Do you remember this dinner at Fouquet’s, on the night of victory, where all the press managing directors were invited round the table, or this presidency which began with the new President on the yacht of his friend, Vincent Bolloré…

The false liberalism of American companies

Finally, the fourth chapter heads to the United States. A country which has become the biggest symbol of this digital revolution, the standard bearer of neo-liberalism. The author makes a preliminary observation: the American holding structures are more dispersed than in Europe. There is no (or very little) family based capitalism, but a power concentrated between the hands of a few industrial giants (General Electric, co-owner of NBC Universal, or Time Warner, the owner of, amongst others, Warner Bros. and Time Magazine). Contrary to what we might have imagined, the trustees of the companies are not scattered all around the globe, but instead 90% of them are resident. As for the remaining 10% they (as in France) originate from neighbouring or strategically close countries (essentially Canada, Mexico and England). Furthermore, the analysis of the different Boards of Trustees shows important links with the financial sector (Goldman Sachs, American Express, etc.), the agrofood sector (Coca Cola, Pepsi) and the pharmaceutical chemistry sector (Pfizer, Merck).

In short, the investigation carried out of the three countries draws up a portrait which is very different from that which normally dominates our thought processes. ‘Comunication multinationals do not exist,’ concludes Geoffrey Geuens. ‘The deregulation of economies has not, in effect, led out onto the transnationalisation of capital.’ The ties with politics remain strong and meaningful. The trustees are, for the vast majority, from the same country as the firms which they manage. In other words, the tryptich of globalisation (the absence of state control, deterritorialisation and deregulation) remains more than ever a state of mind.