ESOPs

The form of globalisation that has prevailed – one that primarily serves the interests of financial and corporate elites – is, to a large extent, a political and legal artefact, not an inevitable outcome of an increasingly interconnected global economy. More specifically, it is primarily attributable to the commodified nature of the business enterprise, which is essentially a human organisation but legally treated as a commodity in our economies. A prime example of the damaging effects of business commodification is the private equity industry. Private equity firms typically acquire businesses with growth potential (often through a leveraged buyout, a mechanism originally devised by Louis Kelso in the 1950s for worker buyouts), restructure them to maximise profitability, and then sell them for a profit.