The public corporation is under attack in America today. The regulatory burden is ever increasing: boards and CEOs are constantly harassed over wide-ranging issues from CEO pay to options "backdating," and the media continues to portray corporate America as a cesspool of corruption. The expenses and risks of being a public corporation are now so great that an unprecedented number of companies are choosing to "go private."

In this course, Dr. Brook discusses the history and economics behind the rise of the modern corporation, explaining how this form of business organization made possible new heights of wealth creation. He explains why the corporation, despite its productive virtues, has been attacked as illegitimate and immoral since its inception. Finally, he discusses the popular paradigm of "corporate social responsibility" and contrasts it with the proper corporate goal of shareholder wealth maximization.