“The Curse of Bigness is a useful guide to the evils of privatized scale. The Curse of Bigness shows with clarity and precision what such an agenda would look like.” He offers an agenda for reform that is both bold and realistic. antitrust from the brink of obsolescence.Like Wu’s previous book The Master Switch, The Curse of Bigness takes history seriously. “Wu joins a rising tide of public intellectuals now trying to rescue U.S. “In this short but persuasive book, Wu (The Attention Merchants), a Columbia law professor, connects the current political climate to a decline in antitrust enforcement.The book’s brevity is an asset – Wu skillfully avoids economic and legal rabbit holes, keeping the book laser-focused on his thesis: that antitrust enforcement must be restored 'as a check on power as necessary in a functioning democracy before it’s too late.' Persuasive and brilliantly written, the book is especially timely given the rise of trillion-dollar tech companies.” Wu is no populist or Democratic socialist rather, he’s a historian and academic who makes an impassioned case for a return to an earlier interpretation of antitrust law, one focused on power.” Columbia University law professor Tim Wu, short and sharp new book, The Curse of Bigness, is an excellent primer for anyone who wants to understand why corporate wealth and power have grown so concentrated in the past four decades, and why that might be a problem for democracy. “A sharp analysis of antitrust law is a welcome guide to power today. “Tim Wu, in his book The Curse of Bigness, which is a cool 160 pages and politely holds the reader’s hand through about 200 years of American economic policy and practice, argues that the time is now, ‘to control economic structure before it controls us.’” Don't let the little package fool you: it's a book with a big punch.” “Wu's gift as a communicator of difficult technical and legal ideas is in full evidence here. 'The Curse of Bigness' moves nimbly through the thicket, embracing the boons of being small.” “It’s a big idea for a little book, but Wu knows how to keep everything concise and contained. “While the very term 'antitrust' may strike many as dreadfully dry, Wu manages to make this brisk and impressively readable overview of the subject vivid and compelling.” He calls for recovering the lost tenets of the trustbusting age as part of a broader revival of American progressive ideas as we confront the fallout of persistent and extreme economic inequality. In The Curse of Bigness, Columbia professor Tim Wu tells of how figures like Brandeis and Theodore Roosevelt first confronted the democratic threats posed by the great trusts of the Gilded Age – but the lessons of the Progressive Era were forgotten in the last 40 years. In short, as Wu warns, we are in grave danger of repeating the signature errors of the twentieth century. History suggests that tolerance of inequality and failing to control excessive corporate power may prompt the rise of populism, nationalism, extremist politicians, and fascist regimes. But concern over what Louis Brandeis called the “curse of bigness” can no longer remain the province of specialist lawyers and economists, for it has spilled over into policy and politics, even threatening democracy itself. We live in an age of extreme corporate concentration, in which global industries are controlled by just a few giant firms – big banks, big pharma, and big tech, just to name a few.
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