How American Business Got So Big

Barry C. Lynn was interviewed by the Atlantic about why Americans should be more concerned with the enforcement of antitrust regulations:

Over the course of the presidential campaign, Donald Trump made plenty of promises about how he would reshape the economy. One thing he would do if elected, he said, was investigate the enormous online retailer Amazon for violation of antitrust regulations.

In suggesting that Amazon, as well as many other large corporations, should be subjected to greater scrutiny, Trump is echoing a growing concern about the concentration of corporate power. He is also—in some ways—echoing the work of Barry Lynn, a senior fellow at New America, a centrist think tank, who has for years been studying markets, trade, and the diminishment of antimonopoly sentiment in the U.S. His most recent book, Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction, looks at the growth of monopolies in the 21st century and politicians’ unwillingness to prevent them from forming.

I spoke with Lynn about the outcome of the election and why he thinks Americans should be more concerned about enforcing antitrust and antimonopoly regulations. The conversation below has been lightly edited.