Business Journalism: How to Report on Business and Economics

Privatization

For more than thirty years, governments in Europe have been privatizing more and more of the activities that were previously done by the state. Eastern Europe joined this trend in the early 1990s and generally continues it today, despite exceptions in some countries and sectors. The United States has privatized a small number of state-owned enterprises in the transport and finance sector, and various US states have sold off utilities such as water and electricity.

But while privatization is often hotly debated by American politicians as a policy, American government sell-offs are drops in the bucket compared to the 130 or so enterprises ...