Corporate power is one of the strongest forces shaping our world. More than half of the top 100 economic entities today are private corporations. With their immense size comes commensurate influence, to the point where corporations are able to wreak social and environmental destruction with few serious consequences. Yet, amazingly, this subject is essentially absent from the study of economics. The conservative economic theory that dominates the profession is based on the core belief that as little as possible should interfere with businesses' pursuit of profit. This approach to economics ignores history, politics, poverty, the natural environment, and social class, among other inconvenient realities. Conservative economics would almost be laughable--were it not for the fact that this way of thinking helps prop up the worst excesses of capitalism.

Robert Chernomas is a Professor of Economics at the University of Manitoba with research and political interests in health economics, the social determinants of health and macroeconomics. Ian Hudson is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Manitoba, currently researching in the areas of political economy and ethical consumption.

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Ian Hudson is a professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Manitoba.

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Social Murder is a compact, well-organized, much-welcomed book that confronts many of the "sacred myths" that underpin supply-side/corporate economic theory. Much of what tend to go unchallenged in discussions about business receive their fair due of skepticism from Chernomas and Hudson.