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Fortune favours the big Jul 12th 2012, 15:45 by The Economist online Where are the biggest companies in the world WHEN RANKED by revenue America has almost twice as many companies in the biggest 500 than any other country, according to Fortune. This is not solely down to its size; America's ratio of companies to people is also striking. It has one company on Fortune's list for every 2.4m people, only a handful of European economies do better. China is moving in on America's spot though. In 2005 the Middle Kingdom housed only 16 of the biggest firms. This year it has 73-more than Japan. In contrast to the American way, China's government has a hand in most of its biggest firms. The highest ranked is Sinopec, an oil producer, which came in fifth. A look at the ratio of big firms to GDP highlights the places where tax is low and business is easy to do. Luxembourg (not shown) does best with 34 companies per trillion dollars, followed by Switzerland and Taiwan. All 500 firms on the list racked up combined revenue of $29trn. From this $1.6trn was profit, about the same as Australia's GDP.

"For sustainability-workers and UN-watchers, today was a big day. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon delivered his long-awaited report to the General Assembly, with his take on the future of sustainable development. The big surprise? The fact that it's all in there … from tackling climate change, to moving beyond GDP, to ensuring human rights and dignity for all, to … well, everything. Sustainability, according to the SG, should basically be everywhere. "Simply put," he writes, "this generation is charged with a duty to transform our societies.""