A book that take down the myth of the American capitalist system as a system of competition and constant renewal. He outlines how the actual American economy has become both monopolistic and monopsonistic with a small number of companies controlling huge areas of the economy, setting prices, wages and even what suppliers will be paid. Innovation and new company creation are steadily slowing. Smaller firms are more and more swallowed up by a few big ones. The end result is lower wages for everyone, the disappearance of family farms and businesses and higher prices for everyone too. This is actually the driving force behind growing income inequality: wages shrink, prices go up, large corporations and big share holders grab more and more of the wealth.
Since slavery the basic American economic model has been highly exploitative. Then came colonialism/imperialism on the world stage. Now they are back consuming their own people to get rich.
Nothing is done because money runs politics. Congress works for the wealthy shareholders and corporations by granting monopolies, increasing regulation that makes it harder for small companies to get started and changing laws that benefit large companies and the wealthy. He underlines the importance of how government advisors and top administrators move back and forth between the private and public sector.
This problem is particularly important in the U.S. Canada and Europe are far more stringent in applying anti-trust and anti-monopoly rules. The U. S. has given up on this.
This book explains why Google and other large tech companies have been having legal problems and being fined large sums of money in Europe whereas nothing is happening in the U.S.
Worth rereading for the details,
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