- Of the 100 largest economies in the world, 51 are corporations; only 49 are countries (based on a comparison of corporate sales and country GDPs).
- The Top 200 corporations' combined sales are bigger than the combined economies of all countries, minus the largest 10.
- The 1999 sales of each of the top five corporations (General Motors, Wal-Mart, Exxon Mobil, Ford Motor, and DaimlerChrysler) are bigger than the GDP's of 182 countries.
- While the sales of the Top 200 TNCs are the equivalent of 27.5 percent of world economic activity, they employ only 0.78 percent of the world's workforce.
- Between 1983 and 1999, the profits of the Top 200 firms grew 362.4 percent, while the number of people they employ grew by only 14.4 percent.
- A full 5 percent of the Top 200s' combined workforce is employed by Wal-Mart, the top private employer in the world, with well over 1,140,000 workers--more than twice as many as No. 2, DaimlerChrysler, which employs 466,938.
- U.S. corporations dominate the Top 200 TNCs, with 82 slots (41 percent of the total). Japanese firms are second, with only 41 slots. Between the two--60% of the top 200.
- Of the U.S. corporations on the list, 44 did not pay the full standard 35 percent federal corporate tax rate during the period 1996-1998. Seven of the firms actually paid less than zero in federal income taxes in 1998 (because of rebates). These include: Texaco, Chevron, PepsiCo, Enron, Worldcom, McKesson and the world's biggest corporation, General Motors.
- In 1999, more than half the sales of the Top 200 were in just 4 economic sectors: financial services (14.5 percent), motor vehicles and parts (12.7 percent), insurance (12.4 percent), and retailing/ wholesaling (11.3 percent).
- Sony's economic worth is bigger than Pakistan's. General Motors' is now bigger than Denmark.
- The 82 U.S. companies on the Top 200 list made contributions to 2000 election campaigns through political action committees (not including soft money donations) that totaled $33,045,832. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, corporations in general outspent labor unions by a ratio of about 15-to-1. The group also found that candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives who outspent their opponents were victorious in 94 percent of their races. In the last Congressional elections just completed, 98 percent of the incumbents won.
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