Stakeholder Capitalism's next frontier: monopoly power

Stakeholder Capitalism’s next frontier – anti-monopoly

Rana Foroohar has written an excellent column in the Financial Times about our latest report, entitled Stakeholder Capitalism’s Next Frontier: Pro- or Anti-monopoly? co-written by our Michelle Meagher and Denise Hearn of the American Economic Liberties Project.

The title speaks for itself. As Foroohar notes:

“Stakeholder capitalists, “while assertive about the obligations of firms in many areas, have been utterly silent” on instances of concentrated corporate power, says Denise Hearn, a senior fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project, and competition lawyer Michelle Meagher, co-founder of the Balanced Economy Project.

. . .

The pair released a paper last week arguing that those who care about more equitable markets should focus on monopoly power . . . They make a good point.”

Here is an example of this dissonance. A ranking by JUST Capital of the most ‘just’ companies has this lucky winner:

Yes, the most “just” company is Alphabet, parent of Google, and one of the most dangerous, democracy-corrupting monopolists in the world today.

That’s quite some dissonance.

Now read on. The executive summary is here, and the full report is here.