Maximizing shareholder profits can no longer be corporations' main goal, say top U.S. CEOs

A group representing more than 100 of the biggest corporations in the U.S. has released a statement updating its definition of the purpose of American corporations.


JOHANNES EISELE / Contributor
  • The new statement says corporations shouldn't only be concerned about maximizing shareholder profits.
  • Instead, corporations should focus on all of its stakeholders.
  • The idea that corporations need only focus on maximizing shareholder profit took hold in the 1970s and has since remained, more or less, the dominant viewpoint on Wall Street.
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Report: Electric cars will soon be cheaper to fuel

The writing is on the wall for the oil industry, according to a new report from BNP Paribas.

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  • The report claims that oil companies will need to produce oil at significantly lower prices if they want to stay competitive with renewables.
  • Continuing to invest in oil production represents a multi-trillion-dollar opportunity cost to global society, the report states.
  • As renewable energies are becoming cheaper, so are electric cars, thanks mainly to cheaper and more efficient batteries.
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Is this the world map of the future?

North America and Europe peripheral on China's 'vertical world map'

Image: Prior Probability
  • Europe has dominated cartography for so long that its central place on the world map seems normal
  • However, as the economic centre of gravity shifts east and the climate warms up, tomorrow's map may be very different
  • Focusing on both China and Arctic shipping lanes, this vertical representation could be the world map of the future
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Why your birthplace is linked to your adult income

A new study finds that factors influencing where you're born continue to affect your earnings throughout life.

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  • Children born, raised, and working in big cities tend to be more successful.
  • A mountain of British demographic data reveals the correlation.
  • Are more successful families created by cities, or are they more likely to move there?
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Automated trucks: Blue-collar disaster or economic win?

Why Silicon Valley wants to automate 3.5 million blue-collar truck drivers out of existence.

  • There are 3.5 million truck drivers in the U.S.; it's the most common job in 29 states. Yet there is a $168 billion financial incentive for Silicon Valley to automate truck drivers.
  • The pros? Automation will lower the 4,000-person annual death toll caused by truck collisions, and it will save companies and consumers money.
  • The cons? Truck drivers with families to support and loans to pay will soon have to compete with a robot truck that doesn't need to sleep. That kind of economic hardship doesn't exist in a vacuum; it will ripple outward in unexpected ways.
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