Tim Wu, The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the New Gilded Age (Book Review)

By jgn on Sunday, December 26, 2021 in Reading, Reviews, and Technology

This is a highly polemical argument at brief length against monopoly power; if you've wanted to read the recent interventions Antitrust: Taking on Monopoly Power from the Gilded Age to the Digital Age or Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy but don't want to read something lengthy, this might be for you.

The most powerful part of the book is its withering critique of Bork's arguments for an "economic" assessment of monopoly in light of consumer impact (i.e., prices). Wu makes a clear case that this argument catered to over-burdened judges who thought they had a simple test that provided for tolerating monopolies and trusts. Instead, Wu says we must return to the original laws which are very clear that monopoly power is undemocratic, and that concentrations of power must be taken apart.

Originally reviewed on Goodreads on 26 December 2021.