The Price System, Conglomerate Energy Companies and OPEC

  • Paul Davidson

Abstract

In an [1974] article in The New York Times, columnist Leonard Silk suggested that the mammoth multinational energy companies suffered from the same fatal affliction as the dinosaurs — ‘a pea sized brain’. According to Silk these corporate mastodons relentlessly pursue the goal of ‘profit maximization’; nevertheless since ‘economics is not everything’ society cannot be at the mercy ‘of corporations that have no other purpose than profit maximization, however legitimate and useful that objective may be in a limited context’. (Silk, 1974)

Keywords

Host Nation Future Market Future Price Operating Company User Cost 
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References

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Copyright information

© Paul Davidson 1991

Authors and Affiliations

  • Paul Davidson

There are no affiliations available

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