ABSTRACT
The business enterprise is a powerful and pervasive influence on our everyday life, though few people realize the extent of the connections between their own experiences and the world of ‘big business’ and ‘high finance’. The products and services that are used in the course of routine daily activities – food, newspapers, cars, houses, credit cards, and so on – are produced by large business enterprises for the mass market and depend upon other products and services – such as machine tools, aircraft, printing presses, computers, and international finance – which businesses produce to sell to one another. The majority of those in paid employment are paid by these same businesses to work in factories, shops, and offices producing these goods and services. News reports on the movement of the Financial Times share index, the sterling balances, and the international currency markets in which these enterprises are involved are not peripheral to ‘real’ news events but are important determinants of the availability of goods, services, and jobs in everyday life. ‘Consumers’ and ‘workers’ are inextricably tied into a web of connections which stretch from the corner shop to the Tokyo money market.
