Our latest book with Thom Hartmann explores how a single legal error paved the way for corporate power to increasingly determine political outcomes by allowing corporations to outspend and out-influence virtually everyone else. American history is filled with examples of concentrated corporate influence shaping public policy, but here are five particularly galling cases:
1. Standard Oil (1870–1911)
What they did: John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil became so economically dominant that it leveraged both its immense wealth and political influence to secure favorable railroad rebates, shape state regulation, and discourage government intervention. Although much of its dominance came through business practices rather than outright bribery, its influence over lawmakers and regulators helped preserve a near-monopoly over the American oil industry until the Supreme Court ordered its breakup in 1911 under the Sherman Antitrust Act.
The cost: Consumers faced reduced competition and fewer choices, smaller competitors were systematically squeezed out of the market, and the concentration of economic power became so great that it fundamentally reshaped the relationship between big business and government. You can read more here.
2. United Fruit Company (1900–1954)
What they did: United Fruit Company became one of the largest landowners in Central America, securing favorable concessions and tax breaks from governments while building extraordinary political influence in Washington. When Guatemala's democratically elected president, Jacobo Árbenz, passed land reforms in 1952 that threatened United Fruit's vast holdings, the company launched an aggressive lobbying and public relations campaign, hiring Edward Bernays to portray Guatemala as a communist threat. Two years later, in 1954, the CIA backed a coup that overthrew Árbenz and installed a military regime.
The cost: Guatemala descended into decades of military dictatorship, repression, and civil war that claimed an estimated 200,000 lives, the overwhelming majority of them civilians. You can read more here.
3. Big Tobacco (1953–1998)
What they did: For decades, tobacco companies spent enormous sums on lobbying and campaign contributions while funding front groups and "independent" scientists to support their claims that smoking was not dangerous. Even after the Surgeon General confirmed in 1964 that smoking causes disease, they continued spending hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying for three more decades, delaying FDA regulations and anti-smoking legislation. In 1998, the Master Settlement Agreement exposed millions of internal company documents proving that they had intentionally and knowingly lied.
The cost: I think you know the price: staggering numbers of cancers, heart disease, and other smoking-related illnesses that claimed millions of lives. You can read more here.
4. Wall Street and Financial Deregulation (1980–2008)
What they did: For nearly three decades, major banks and financial institutions spent hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying Congress and federal regulators to loosen financial regulations. Their efforts contributed to the repeal of key provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999, weaker oversight of complex financial derivatives in 2000, and a broader regulatory environment that allowed increasingly risky lending and investment practices. While the 2008 financial crisis had many causes, numerous investigations concluded that inadequate regulation was a major contributing factor.
The cost: The collapse triggered the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Millions of Americans lost their jobs, millions more lost their homes, trillions of dollars in household wealth disappeared, and taxpayers ultimately helped stabilize the financial system. You can read more here.
5. The Pharmaceutical Industry (1990s–Present)
What they did: The pharmaceutical industry has consistently ranked among the highest-spending lobbying sectors in Washington, spending billions of dollars over the past three decades to influence legislation affecting drug pricing, patent protections, Medicare, and generic competition. While lobbying is a legal part of the democratic process, critics argue that the industry's political influence has helped preserve higher prescription drug prices and delay reforms that might have reduced costs for patients.
The cost: Americans pay some of the highest prescription drug prices in the developed world, leaving many patients to ration medications, delay treatment, or forgo lifesaving drugs because of cost. You can read more here.
If this was just history, that would be one thing, but this is happening right here, right now and our lives and our loved ones’ lives are all being impacted by it.
