I've found it a little difficult to talk about Monopolized, it's kind of about everything I've reported on in the last 5 years. So I'm glad to run an exclusive excerpt at @TheProspect. I can tell you a little bit about it: prospect.org/culture/books/…
The launching pad for this chapter of the book is actually this viral tweet:
Ben Boyer wrote this at a cancer center in La Jolla with a huge bank of windows looking out over the Pacific Ocean. So all he could see was salt and water, and he was being told that the hospital had no salt and water in a bag to use.
The ostensible reason, much like the early days of the pandemic, was a supply chain issue: one company produces half the country's IV bags in one location, and that location was hit by a hurricane, with a cascading effect on flu patients and chemo recipients nationwide.
But that was only the *ostensible* reason. In fact, IV bags
had been on the FDA shortage list since 2013—four years before the hurricane knocked out Baxter’s facilities. How could salt and water in a bag be in perpetual short supply?
had been on the FDA shortage list since 2013—four years before the hurricane knocked out Baxter’s facilities. How could salt and water in a bag be in perpetual short supply?
The answer is in the excerpt: a group of concentrated middlemen that have led to absurd pricing, substandard equipment, and system-wide fragility. One man—his name's Phil Zweig—has been a lonely evangelist about this for years.
I'll let you read the rest. The book really describes the system we live in, and its absurdities. It's best taken in as a whole, not a summary. So stop reading me here and read the excerpt! prospect.org/culture/books/…
