1. There is a crisis of capitalism right now, and that is the overriding problem in our world. No one trusts our economic system, it is abusive to everyone attached to it, even the super-rich. This system is branded as capitalism, but really it is a system of monopolies.
2. Since I started working on the monopoly problem, I've learned of monopolies *everywhere.* There's the big stuff, like airlines who can kill cities by changing airline routes. And Google, Facebook, and Amazon organizing our public commons. But monopolies exist in small markets.
3. Business software is rife with concentrated power. Microsoft is killing Zoom and Slack with its inferior yet free offerings. vox.com/2019/10/14/209…
4. There's a voting machine oligopoly. openmarketsinstitute.org/newsletters/th…
5. People know about too big to fail banks, but one reason smaller banks have trouble competing with the big guys is because of the *bank software monopoly.* americanbanker.com/news/can-big-f…
6. The syringe market has a huge monopoly problem. mddionline.com/bd-running-mon…
7. Candy. Pet and Pet Supplies Stores. Ambulance manufacturing. Coffins. Baby Formula. Dialysis. Concentrated market power is in every single nook and cranny of our culture. …rationcrisis.openmarketsinstitute.org
8. Today I learned there's a comic book distribution monopoly that picks and chooses which comic books get into stores. ranker.com/list/dark-fact…
9. Monopolies crush our culture and lead to centralization and censorship. The power of artists in Hollywood is right now being destroyed by consolidation. mattstoller.substack.com/p/the-slow-dea…
10. Unregulated or badly regulated monopolies put us on the edge of disaster. We see this with Con Ed in New York City or PG&E in California. mattstoller.substack.com/p/why-new-york…
11. Our infrastructure is insanely expensive to build because of graft and corruption from the nest of firms profiting from monopoly power. Our food systems are so thinned out and concentrated we risk starvation after natural disasters. citylab.com/equity/2013/10…
12. Monopolies make it much harder to address global warming. They empower Chinese censorship. When you concentrate power in a few people's hands, then those people drift towards autocracy. mattstoller.substack.com/p/how-joe-bide…
13. I’m not for or against capitalism, capitalism is just a relatively meaningless brand, and arguing about capitalism is fighting with ghosts. We have an American economic system based on monopolies and it’s a fatal economic structure.
14. The crisis of capitalism is really a crisis of monopoly. And now, we have a politics increasingly geared to taking it on. That's why Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Josh Hawley are such different and interesting political figures.
15. Business leaders and investors increasingly recognize the problem of monopoly. wsj.com/articles/why-u…
16. So do military officials and national security strategists. CCP control over U.S. corporate structures just does not square with anything remotely defensible. theamericanconservative.com/articles/ameri…
17. The left comes at the problem by emphasizing small business, democracy, localism, and justice. Here's @AOC supporting local businesses against the Walmart of wine. nypost.com/2019/09/19/aoc…
@AOC 18. The right comes at the monopoly problem with a national security frame. But in many ways it's the same argument. Make it in America - national sovereignty - is a localist argument! theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-c…
@AOC 19. Abusive behavior is propped up all over the world by monopoly power. Small countries are often controlled by a few families. In the U.S. monopoly power results in men like Harvey Weinstein abusing women for decades.
@AOC 20. This situation is new! Americans used to talk about industrial democracy and equality as foundational. What happened? promarket.org/when-american-…
@AOC 21. It's a complex story, but basically thinkers on the right and left decided big is good. Big is efficient. Big works. And follow that philosophy for forty years and we're in a bad spot.
But we can fix it! Society moves quickly today. But to do that we must know our history.
But we can fix it! Society moves quickly today. But to do that we must know our history.
@AOC 22. Today book, Goliath: The Hundred Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy, comes out. It is the story of *why* capitalism is in crisis. It is how we forgot our heritage of fighting concentrated power. It is a cheat sheet for what's ahead. simonandschuster.com/books/Goliath/…
@AOC 23. We can regain our liberty as a free people. Every generation faces this challenge, some rise and meet it and some do not. Now is our moment. It is not going to be easy, but it will be fun. The battle is joined. simonandschuster.com/books/Goliath/…
@AOC 24. Oh, and one thing I learned in researching Goliath is that the billionaire behind Jeffrey Epstein - Les Wexner - made his money in the 1980s via the monopolization of American retail through chain stores.
