2009/4/1 john gilmore <john_w_gilm...@msn.com>: > For those of you who read German readily, there is a new book:
> Siegele, Ludwig, & Joseph Zepelin. Matrix der Welt. SAP und der neue > globale Kapitalizmus. Frankfurt und New York: Campus-Verlag, 2009. > > available that describes---publicly and in very much greater detail than I > have seen anywhere else---the uses that some multinationals are making of > SAP, chiefly and crucially on mainframes, to integrate and "optimize" their > operations across national boundaries. > > Some of these new uses are, I think, problematic. Tax avoidance and > displacement are not of course new or even unethical; but their optimization > means that some multinationals are or will shortly be in a position to decide > where to pay taxes. > > The book is not, however, chiefly a muckraking one. The information it > provides about these new uses of SAP and how they are being implemented is of > great technical interest. There was book "And Tomorrow the World" published around 1980, purporting to tell the story of IBM up to that point. Its British author claimed that IBM was even then a past master at this sort of thing, with computer-optimized payment of taxes, allocation of income and expenses to countries to (quite legally) avoid the then-common exchange controls, and even a system to issue payments that ensured the longest possible clearing time within the US banking system. Tony H. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
