“Information and the Redistribution of Capitalist Profits. The magnitude of the exploitation of labor under capitalism determines the initial distribution of capitalist profits. Under free market capitalism – still the predominant form of capitalism – this initial distribution is only temporary, however, because the dynamics of the accumulation process compel corporations intending to augment profits to invest the fruits of exploitation, most significantly in the financial markets and in technology. (2) And according to how successfully they are reinvested, corporate profits are redistributed. But how successfully corporate profits are reinvested in the financial markets and in technology, under free market capitalism, is a function of information differentials.

Financial Information Differentials. A redistribution of corporate profits results whenever an event occurs having predictable consequences for the profits of corporations, if different investors learn of the event’s occurrence at different times. A most notorious example of the phenomenon was the Rothschilds’ killing on the London Stock Marked in 1815, made possible because they learned, some hours before the rest of England found out, that Napoleon had been defeated at Waterloo.

Even better than knowing before other investors that an event has occurred is having prior knowledge that it will occur. Prior knowledge of the planned activities of corporations themselves constitutes the single greatest source of financial information differentials in America’s free market economy, and where not obtained by conspiracy, bribery, or coercion, such information is sought by corporate espionage. (3)

Technological Information Differentials. A redistribution of profits results when any corporation increases, vis-a-vis competing corporations, the output of labor and materials by technological improvement. (4) Such improvements may be patented and so legally, though seldom for long effectively, protected from expropriation by other corporations. Patents are both licenses to profit from technological information differentials and schematizations of the differentials themselves. Because the latter feature renders patents so easily infringed, most technological improvements are not patented; they are protected by secrecy only.

Free Enterprise. The capitalist economic system predicated upon the redistribution of corporate profits according to differentials in financial and technological information – “free market” capitalism – is commonly called the “free enterprise system.” In the American free enterprise system, corporate espionage does a greater volume of business yearly than the housing construction industry.”