Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy

Краткое содержание «Goliath»

1. 1

   The Forgotten War Between Democracy and Monopoly

   

   00:00

   00:00

   America once thrived by actively fighting corporate monopolies. Then we forgot how. Matt Stoller's "Goliath" reveals a hidden history that explains our current economic crisis-how concentrated corporate power has undermined democracy and hollowed out the middle class. The story begins with Wright Patman, the last true populist in Congress, whose 1975 ousting by "Watergate Babies" marked the final act in a century-long struggle between democracy and monopoly power. Today, with two phone makers, four giant banks, four major airlines, and a handful of tech giants controlling our digital lives, this forgotten history couldn't be more relevant. What's remarkable is how this book has earned praise across the political spectrum-from Elizabeth Warren to Tucker Carlson-reflecting growing bipartisan concern about unchecked corporate power.

2. 2

   The First Great Monopoly Crisis

   Начать прослушивание

   In 1910, Theodore Roosevelt stood before a Kansas crowd declaring America faced its "third great national crisis"-the rise of corporate power. The timing was perfect: violent strikes, political assassinations, and socialist mayors were being elected across America. Roosevelt framed this crisis as following the Revolution against aristocracy and the Civil War against slave-owning plutocrats. Now corporate power threatened democracy itself. The crisis had been building since the Civil War. Railroad corporations expanded with government subsidies while industrial barons concentrated wealth through political corruption. By the 1890s, Republican Party boss Mark Hanna raised what would be $3 billion in today's money for William McKinley's campaign, famously saying "There are two things important in politics. The first is money, and I can't remember the second." The 1912 election became a battle between competing reform visions: Woodrow Wilson's populist approach to break up monopolies versus Roosevelt's plan to have experts control them. As Wilson declared, "Once the government regulates the monopoly, then monopoly will see to it that it regulates the government." Wilson won and immediately moved to smash monopoly power, restructuring the New Haven Railroad, breaking up AT&T's "telephone trust," creating the Federal Reserve, and establishing the Federal Trade Commission to prevent monopolization.

3. 3

   The Rise and Fall of Democratic Capitalism

   Начать прослушивание

   When Warren Harding took office in 1921, Andrew Mellon's appointment as Treasury Secretary marked the return of concentrated financial power. Mellon, a soft-spoken banking titan who led over sixty companies, dismantled Wilson's wealthy income tax and secured billions in corporate refunds-including to his own companies. The Coolidge administration embraced this pro-business stance, declaring "the business of America is business." The Depression exposed this system's fragility. By 1932, Americans faced unprecedented hardship-in Philadelphia, 250,000 people risked starvation; in Toledo, one-fifth of the population stood in breadlines daily. Wright Patman, a fearless freshman congressman, launched investigations into Mellon's conflicts of interest, eventually forcing his resignation. Roosevelt's New Deal restructured American capitalism around decentralized power. His administration tackled industrial concentration while confronting rising fascism abroad. Roosevelt explicitly connected the two, warning in 1938 that democracy couldn't survive if private power exceeded state authority. By the 1950s, this new system delivered broad prosperity-poverty fell from 40% in 1945 to 10% by 1970, with a third of workers unionized and gaining access to homeownership, healthcare, and pensions.

4. Глава 4

   The Chicago School Revolution

   The counterrevolution against the New Deal began quietly in 1946 when Friedrich Hayek organized the Free Market Study at the University of Chicago. Though its founders disagreed on specifics, they shared a belief that the world was sliding toward leftist totalitarianism. The Chicago School developed two strategic approaches: first, they appropriated Jeffersonian democratic language about monopolies and liberty but redefined "monopolies" to mean public schools and labor unions rather than corporations; second, they adopted the apolitical language of science, claiming opponents were too unscientific to understand their insights. Robert Bork became their most effective advocate, cultivating three crucial constituencies: the corporate legal establishment, business elites, and the conservative grassroots. His breakthrough 1963 Fortune article "The Crisis in Antitrust" argued that antitrust law was fundamentally incoherent and subversive to free markets-a sensation among corporate lawyers and business schools. By 1974-1975, America faced economic crisis. Electric utility Consolidated Edison had to sell assets to New York state, Pan Am struggled with debt, and New York City itself nearly went bankrupt. Corporate America mobilized politically-CEOs of Alcoa, Ford, and General Electric formed the Business Roundtable, while Lewis Powell's famous memo urged business to seize cultural and legal power through aggressive advocacy.

   Глава 5

   How We Lost Our Economic Freedom

   In 1975, the "Watergate Babies"-young Democrats who entered Congress after Nixon's resignation-began dismantling the New Deal economic framework. Their first target was fair trade laws that protected small businesses from predatory pricing by large chains. Despite warnings that repealing these laws would lead to a country "dominated by big businesses," they passed the Consumer Goods Pricing Act of 1975. This opened opportunity for Sam Walton in Bentonville, Arkansas. In 1976, Walmart advertisements noted that "the repeal of fair trade laws nationally made it possible for Walmart to discount all patterns." This legal shift reshaped American commerce, concentrating power in larger discounters. From 1970 to 1979, Walmart grew from $44 million to $1.2 billion in annual sales. By 1985, Walton was America's richest man. Reagan cemented this revolution by appointing Chicago School judges throughout the federal judiciary and drastically reducing antitrust enforcement. Under Clinton, populist rhetoric masked pro-monopoly policies. Despite promises of renewed antitrust enforcement, his administration oversaw an unprecedented merger wave-166,310 deals worth $9.8 trillion in seven years, far exceeding the Reagan-Bush era's $3.5 trillion over twelve years.

   Глава 6

   The New Monopoly Crisis

   Today we face a crisis of concentrated power reminiscent of 1912. Amazon was conceived as a monopoly from its inception-in 1994, Jeff Bezos envisioned an "Everything Store" as the dominant intermediary for all commerce. Like Rockefeller, Bezos exploited every advantage-from tax loopholes to predatory pricing-transforming Amazon into an infrastructure giant controlling nearly half of online retail. Google has achieved unprecedented surveillance capabilities through eight billion-user products. It tracks thoughts through its "database of intentions," monitors movements via Android and Maps, and follows online behavior through its tracking systems. Combined with its control over information distribution, Google has achieved what Eric Schmidt called near-omniscience. The 2008 financial crisis sparked renewed interest in economic power. Elizabeth Warren exposed bank misconduct, while Bernie Sanders fought "Too Big to Fail" institutions. The antimonopoly movement has gained bipartisan support, with both parties concerned about big tech's influence. Antitrust enforcement is reviving globally. Monopolization isn't inevitable. The corporate structure was built on fantasies of inevitability, whether right-wing visions of progress or left-wing beliefs in unstoppable capitalism. America has always been a nation of tradespeople embedding social justice in commerce. Each generation must choose between liberty for all or rule by commercial aristocracy. Today, we stand at that crossroads once again, with the tools of our democratic tradition waiting to be rediscovered.

   Продолжить чтение