Reviews

NMPE's Oil and Gas: A Look at New Mexico's Largest Industry points out the disparities between production and control of New Mexico's oil and gas resources. Although New Mexico is the United States' fourth largest producer of natural gas, and the seventh largest producer of oil, the companies which control these industries are mostly out-of-state companies, and partly because of this reason, New Mexico often experiences shortages of oil and gas.

Only three of the state's top forty oil producers are New Mexico based, and none of these is among the top five, which control 4M o of production.

This 18-page report points out that the greatest profits in the oil industry come from processing and refining, and that most of New Mexico's oil is refined in Texas.

The report lists New Mexico's largest oil and gas producers, refiners and processors, and pipeline companies. It gives a brief history of New Mexico's Oil Conservation Commission, and outlines the major issues in New Mexico's natural gas industry. It also documents the effects of the oil and gas industries on New Mexico politics.

Corporate Profiles, 1981 lists 42 major corporations operating in New Mexico. It contains information on businesses they control or have investments in, their financial situations, national and international operations, state operations, operations on Navajo land, their major owners and members of boards of directors.

Oil and Gas: A Look at New Mexico's Largest Industry is available for $3 for individuals or $6 for institutions. Corporate Profiles 1981 are available separately for $0.60 for individuals or $1.20 for institutions. The entire set of 42 profiles is available for $20 individuals, $45 institutions. For these reports, or a list of all NMPE's power structure reports, write: NMPE, P.O. Box 4726, Albuquerque, NM 81796.

"Sears sells $5,000 worth of goods in the time it takes to read this sentence."

"The average computer theft reported by corporations amounts to approximately $500,000."

"Beatrice Foods.. .is the largest food company in the nation..."

"Every year an estimated 50 million prescriptions are written for Valium..."

These are but a few of the facts and figures crammed among historical and contemporary anecdotes in this remarkable almanac.

Now in its second edition, Everybody's Business is a monumental work which should be on every kitchen shelf alongside the dictionary and the Yellow Pages. An army of writers, researchers and helpers put the book together in response to the same urge to fill a major information gap that launched Multinational Monitor two years ago.

The book is organized into 16 chapters, categorized according to products and services so that chapter titles include: "Food, glorious food," "In transit: rails to rockets," and "Alchemy: looking, feeling and smelling good." There's an index of companies , profiled (117 in all), which were selected principally according to the size of their gross sales but also with a bias toward known names and interesting stories to tell. There's also a consumer brand index so you can find out, for instance, that Louis Sherry ice cream is made by Beatrice Foods, and Breyer's by Kraft.

Most space is devoted to histories, since, according to the editors, "Corporations, like people, are often better understood by looking at their past." There are very simplified summaries of the companies' financial shape, and there's even a cryptic "stock performance" entry for each company, provided by Chase/Interactive Data. And as for Chase Manhattan Bank itself, the almanac notes that "The people who really have a friend at Chase are the financial managers of big corporations, banks, and governments." The editors add that their almanac is for "friends, foes, and neutral observers of American business."

Everybody's Business was compiled with the help of the Data Center in Oakland, the Council on Economic Priorities in New York, and the Corporate Data Exchange, also of New York.