Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction [Hardcover]

Barry C. Lynn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 7, 2010

"A manifesto for our times."
—Thomas Frank, Wall Street Journal

Barry C. Lynn, one of the most original and surprising students of the American economy, paints a genuinely alarming picture: most of our public debates about globalization, competitiveness, creative destruction, and risky finance are nothing more than a cover for the widespread consolidation of power in nearly every imaginable sector of the American economy.

Cornered strips the camouflage from the secret world of twenty-first-century monopolies-neofeudalist empires whose sheer size, vast resources, and immense political power enable the people who control to direct virtually every major industry in America in an increasingly authoritarian manner. Lynn reveals how these massive juggernauts, which would have been illegal just thirty years ago, came into being, how they have destroyed or devoured their competition, and how they collude with one another to maintain their power and create the illusion of open, competitive markets.

A confluence of small government zealotry and misguided efficient market theories has lead to a complete dismantling of government oversight of industry. Has that brought us the promised economic utopia? Just the opposite. For decades, the dominant elite has used the federal government to all but encourage companies to buy one another up, outsource all their production, and make their profits by leveraging their complete power over the market itself. Lynn makes clear it will take more than a lawsuit or two to overthrow America's corporatist oligarchy and restore a model of capitalism that protects our rights as property holders and citizens, and the independence of our Republic.

• Details how regular citizens can join together to beat the great powers, and how to do so by relearning the real history and language of our democratic republic.
• Includes stories of real people and real industries that show how monopolies threaten independent businesses, squelch innovation, degrade the quality and safety of products, destabilize vital industrial and financial systems, and destroy the fabric of democracy
• Explores monopoly power across a wide array of industries, including appliances, auto parts, beer, eyeglasses, medical supplies, pet food, surfboards, vitamins, and more.
• Demonstrates how the drive for "always lower prices" makes your job disappear, puts your small business out of business, and turns dreams of entrepreneurial success into impossible fantasies

Lynn is that rarest of creatures, a journalist whose theoretical writings are taken very seriously by the top policymakers and economic thinkers in Washington and around the world. His work has been compared already to John Kenneth Galbraith and Peter Drucker. The Washington Post called Lynn's last book-on globalization-"Tom Friedman for grownups." Cornered is essential reading for anyone who cares about America and its future.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Sometimes the evidence of economic disaster is right in front of your eyes, but you can't see how all the pieces fit together. Then a book comes along to explain things, and suddenly everything meshes. Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction is that kind of a book." (huffingtonpost.com, February 11, 2010) 

From the Inside Flap

You're at the mall, looking to buy a pair of prescription sunglasses. Which of the four eyeglass stores listed in the directory should you visit first? Don't waste a lot of time deciding; it really doesn't matter. A single, huge international corporation owns three of the four eyeglass stores listed. And the fourth? Out of business. Think you'll try your luck at Sears? Don't bother. The same company you've never heard of controls their eyewear department, too. What appears at first to be a fine example of competitive capitalism in action is, in fact, an immense monopoly in disguise. And it's far from being the only one.

In Cornered, journalist Barry C. Lynn paints a genuinely alarming picture: most of our public debates about globalization, competitiveness, creative destruction, and risky finance are nothing more than a cover for the widespread consolidation of power in nearly every imaginable sector of the American economy.

Cornered strips the camouflage from the secret world of twenty-first-century monopolies—neofeudalist empires whose sheer size, vast resources, and immense political power enable them to control virtually every major industry in America in an increasingly authoritarian manner. Lynn reveals how these massive juggernauts, which would have been illegal just thirty years ago, came into being, how they have destroyed or devoured their competition, and how they collude with one another to maintain their power and create the illusion of open, competitive markets.

The Obama administration has promised more aggressive enforcement on antitrust issues, but Lynn argues that they are missing the forest for the trees. For decades, the federal government has all but encouraged companies to buy one another up, outsource all their production, and make their profits by leveraging their market share. It will take more than a lawsuit or two to overthrow America's corporatist oligarchy and restore a model of capitalism that protects our rights as property holders and citizens.

Through stories of real people and real industries, Barry C. Lynn shows how monopolies threaten independent businesses, squelch innovation, degrade the quality and safety of basic products, destabilize our most vital industrial and financial systems, and destroy the very fabric of democracy. Avoiding the partisan cant that has poisoned virtually every important American debate in recent years, he explains how, over the past three decades, leaders of both parties and thinkers across the political spectrum have encouraged and enabled the growth of monopolies. He traces the history of how such now-familiar phrases as "free market" and "consumer welfare" were created and used to pave the way for monopolization. Lynn also demonstrates how the drive for "always lower prices," routinely invoked to justify ruthless practices that might once have landed their perpetrators in jail, makes jobs disappear, puts small businesses out of business, and turns dreams of entrepreneurial success into impossible fantasies.

Complete with an entirely fresh set of solutions based on the traditional American approach of empowering the individual citizen, Cornered is both a wake-up call and a call to arms for anyone who believes in democracy, competition, and liberty for all.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (January 7, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470186380
• ISBN-13: 978-0470186381
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #124,639 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

In his first book - End of the Line (2005) - Barry wrote a pathbreaking study of industrial systems made "Too Big to Fail" and of the dangers of overly extreme interdependence among nations. The Washington Post called End of the Line "Tom Friedman for grown-ups" and Ha Joon Chang compared that work to the writings of John Kenneth Galbraith. In Cornered, Barry takes an explosive look at how financiers use their powers in ways that destroy jobs, crush independent businesses, hobble innovation, degrade safety, harm our environment, and, most dangerous of all, threaten the political foundations of our democratic republic. Barry is director of the Markets, Enterprise, and Resiliency Project, and a senior fellow, at the New America Foundation. He has presented his work to high officials in Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Taiwan, and the European Commission, as well as the White House and U.S. Treasury.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I knew it was bad--but not this bad, January 1, 2010

By 

Walter J. Meldrich, Jr. "wmeldrich" (Kirkland, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction (Hardcover)

Every American needs to read this book. Especially the tea party types. The massive consolidation of corporate America has led to virtually all of our recent problems. Among them: rapid offshoring, loss of product safety, the squeezing of small business and the middle class, the corruption of government and especially congress, the too big to fail syndrome, the routine corporate corruption, etc. These problems will continue until we strongly reassert our anti-trust laws that Reagan decided to ignore and every president since has refused to enforce including Obama. If we don't fix this, plan on the US assuming third world status soon.

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Important Read and a book we should discuss, March 3, 2010

By 

A. Godshall (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction (Hardcover)

As Thomas Frank of the Wall Street Journal put it (3/3/10) . "Barry C. Lynn's recent book, "Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction," has about it the feel of a secret history. It arises directly from the old antitrust tradition, and it presents us with an amazing catalogue of present-day monopolies, oligopolies and economic combinations. Its subjects are, by definition, some of the largest and most powerful organizations in the world. And yet almost none of it was familiar to me....

Mr. Lynn tells us, for example, about the power of single companies or small groups of companies over such disparate fields as eyeglasses, certain categories of pet food, washer-dryer sales, auto parts, many aspects of food processing, surfboards, medical syringes--and that the same situation would almost certainly exist in the sacred beer market were it not for the peculiarities of local alcoholic-beverage regulations....

This is, we are often reminded, a populist age, with fresh flare-ups of fury every time Wall Street bonuses hit the headlines. And in Mr. Lynn's combination of outrage against "the rich" and reverence for the country's democratic tradition, he seems to capture the sensibility of the times perfectly. "Cornered" could well become a sort of manifesto for our time, a road map for a revival of the old antitrust sentiment."

This book is a must read. Run don't walk to your local bookstore.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars On the Money, April 2, 2010

By 

Mililani (Annapolis, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction (Hardcover)

Besides being a terrific read, Cornered is a profoundly important and powerfully disturbing book. In the area of pharmaceuticals, the industry I know best, intense competition still exists, and thus Pharma might not seem to fall into the category of a monopoly. Even so, this book captures much of what has gone wrong in that particular corner of American capitalism. I now understand better why the drug industry has become larger and larger with fewer and fewer companies, and that other industries also substitute marketing for real innovation. Most disturbing of all is the out-sized political power that huge profits and consolidation provide. The founders of this country were very clear about the need to balance the power of branches of government in order to curb the tendency toward authoritarianism and tyranny, but excessive corporate power can be just as dangerous. Cornered offers a strong argument against the prevailing and near-religious faith in the power of the so-called "free market" to make us all rich and cure all our social ills.