A searing indictment of modern corporations, which, says the author, enjoy the legal status of individuals but are not bound by the same legal and moral responsibilities. Why do multinational drug companies hide or falsify unfavorable results? Why do automakers knowingly sell us unsafe cars? Why is big business allowed to poison our environment-and us? Why is our food so unhealthful and obesity growing at such an alarming rate? Why are we working such long hours and enjoying life less? This timely and important book places the blame for much of what ails contemporary society squarely on one institution: the modern, publicly traded corporation, which enjoys the legal status of an individual but does not seem bound by the same legal and moral responsibilities, and, in fact, by its nature is brutally and implacably selfish. While recognizing the positive contributions corporations have made over the past two centuries to science, technology, and medicine, the author examines the greed at the core of it all and pinpoints what went wrong.