Review by Booklist Review
Dayen has collected data and case studies that reveal how a handful of megacorporations dominates daily life to the detriment of many Americans. His extensive research reveals how monopolies have eliminated genuine consumer choice, worker protections, and competition while also stifling innovation and racking up enormous corporate profits. Dayen exposes the influence these entities have gained over public officials at the expense of the public good. He drives home his points with chapter titles presenting such seemingly ridiculous premises as, "monopolies are why people keep contracting deep vein thrombosis on long-haul flights," that turn out to be based in fact. His deep dive into corporate power not only retrieves evidence that proves such statements correct but also illuminates other abuses. Dayen's investigation is as well-written and compelling as it is disturbing in its detailed and hard-hitting revelations. But Dayen moves beyond the injustice and insult of it all to remind readers that America has faced the threat of monopolies and unfair economic practices in the past and created ways to regulate and rein in such damaging practices. And as his concluding chapter on fighting back makes clear, the U.S. can do so again with a rise in citizen awareness and activism.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
American Prospect editor Dayen (Chain of Title) delivers a sweeping, deeply researched assessment of the adverse consequences of monopolies on American life. A chapter on the agricultural industry explains how the "concentrated animal feeding operations" of corporate hog farms put smaller competitors out of business, damage the environment, and endanger public health. Dayen also details how tech behemoths such as Google and Facebook degrade online journalism; how pharmaceutical companies prevent people from buying insulin and other essential medications at an affordable price; and how Amazon exploits contract delivery drivers and third-party sellers. Tracing the steady decline of antitrust enforcement across the past few decades, Dayen notes, for instance, that 51 airlines merged between 1979 and 1988, and that four major carriers now control more than 80% of U.S. routes. In the book's final chapter, he calls for the reinterpretation of existing antitrust laws "to cover the full spectrum of harms, beyond just consumer welfare," and describes the emergence of antimonopoly movements in the U.S. and abroad. Balancing copious data with profiles of workers and business owners, and writing in clear, accessible language, Dayen makes a persuasive argument that reining in big business should be a priority for American voters and policy makers. This is an incisive, irrefutable call to action. (July)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A cutting damnation of the monopolization of the international marketplace for, well, pretty much everything. As the executive editor of the American Prospect, one of the most progressive publications in America, it's no surprise that Dayen eviscerates the flawed system that has propped up the modern economy for decades: monopolies, the collection of faceless corporations that manipulate the system while placing the burden of the work on the backs of everyday people, whether they know it or not. The author digs deep into the problem, chronicling his travels around the U.S. to see not only the macro effects of monopolies, but their very real impacts on real people. Each of the chapters begins with the phrase "Monopolies are why..." and proceeds to use painful examples to illustrate Dayen's cogent arguments. Examples include: "why hundreds of journalists became filmmakers, then back to writers, then unemployed," or "why a small business owner and his girlfriend had to get permission from Amazon to live together." The author covers such usual suspects as the banking industry, the communications industry, and big pharma, but he shines a light on the shady corners of the prison system and even the funeral industry, illuminating the breadth and depth of the insidious effects of a multilayered system that follows and controls its victims throughout their lives. Dayen's main thread is inequality, a natural consequence of one entity having nearly complete control over a market. Readers may know much of this information, but it's still shocking to read about the damaging consequences of superconcentrated markets. Economists know how to fight it, as Dayen clearly explains, but getting people to recognize how they're being used is exceedingly difficult. It's a striking social and economic dilemma that the author thankfully exposes, just as he did with the foreclosure crisis in Chain of Title (2016). A powerful, necessary call to arms to strengthen the antitrust movement and fight a system whose goal is complete control. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
