My Book Review of ‘The Curse of Bigness’

Hi! I’m reviewing The Curse of Bigness by Tim Wu today. This is a great book that everybody should read. Everybody, because it concerns us all. It’s about antitrust law and it’s a short, concise, sensible explanation of the law, its history, why it was enacted, why the antitrust laws were enacted, and how they have been completely changed in meaning over the years.

The antitrust laws started out as being intended to inhibit the growth of businesses to keep them from becoming way too big, to the point where they were holding too much sway over the government, so to speak. And the laws have changed based on a school of thought called the Chicago School that emphasized consumer welfare over the concern about bigness. And that sums it up pretty much. And since the last big breakup that took place sometime—was it in the seventies or the eighties?—there has been very little in the way of significant antitrust law actions.

Except, of course, for that bizarre case that the Justice Department brought against five publishing companies and a tech company. And yeah, that’s all I’ll say about that, because I’m trying to imagine publishing companies getting together as a cartel. They can barely manage their own businesses. Okay. Having said that, I will just say this is a great book, and here’s a really great part of it.

I liked the the way he concluded: “By providing checks on monopoly and limiting private concentration of economic power, the antitrust law can maintain and support a different economic structure than the one we have now. It can give humans a fighting chance against corporations and free the political process from invisible government. But to turn the ship as leaders of the Progressive era did will require an acute sensitivity to the dangers of the current path, the growing threats to the constitutional order, and the potential of rebuilding a nation that actually lives up to its greatest ideals.”

Wow. Those are some powerful words and it’s a great book and I highly recommend it. And was there something else I wanted to say? Yes, there was, but I can’t remember what it is now. Oh, yeah. Feel free to check out the links below this video, which are affiliate links to where you can buy the book. Take care and I’ll talk to you later.

PS: I think this somewhat tortured analysis missed the mark a BIG one! 🙂