Bonus question: How many names would one need to right down?
Real bad luck some chud hog like Light Yagami found the Death Note before anyone else did. By killing only criminals reported on in the news, he effectively made himself into a weapon of execution that could be freely wielded by the cops at almost entirely their own discretion. I wish the anime would have explored that idea a bit more, but I'll settle for the very pathetic way Light Yagami got caught by a 12 year old, threw a tantrum, and then died. That was unironically a great ending.
So say a communist found it instead. How much damage could this baby do to the global capitalist nightmare we live under?
You can't just like, kill a bunch of dudes and think things will change but it's pretty good leverage with a huge weakness that it doesn't work if you don't know someone's name. You'd basically need to do normal revolution and keep that death note waaaaaaaaaaay up your sleeve. It makes purges easier and if you have a decently trustworthy cadre it could be used for leverage but you would have to seriously cover your own ass before using it even as leverage, even people on your side don't want to be subject to someone with literal control over whether you live or die.
idk how many CEOs could there be? just keep death noting them until the economy is controlled by huawei and newman's.
It's JUST THAT EASY
Companies usually list their board of directors too right? Could probably just look up a descending list of personal wealth.