The Profit Paradox

Equity investors prefer firms as protected from their rivals as medieval castles with deep moats. Recent decades have seen powerful companies boom that are all but impregnable to competition. This is good for their investors but bad for customers, workers, other stakeholders and democracy. Professor Jan Eeckhout lucidly explains why market power is toxic to the economy and contrary to capitalism’s fundamental principles. He draws on centuries of economic literature, but makes his case in language accessible even to those with no formal economics training. His provocative exposition of market power and its consequences tackles a subject fraught with political and social implications.