The Curse of Bigness

We're three decades into a global experiment: what happens when the major nations of the world weaken their control on the size and power of corporate giants and allow unrestricted expansion?





In The Curse of Bigness Tim Wu exposes the threats monopolies pose to economic stability and social freedom around the world. Aided by the globalization of commerce and finance, in recent years, we have seen takeovers galore that make a mockery of the ideals of competition and economic freedom. Such is the reality of the 'curse of bigness': stifled entrepreneurship, stalled productivity, dominant tech giants like Facebook and Google, and fewer choices for consumers.





Urgent and persuasive, this bold manifesto argues that we need to rediscover the anti-monopoly traditions that brought great peace and prosperity in the past.



Tim Wu is Professor of Law, Science and Technology at Columbia Law School and a contributing writer for the New York Times. He previously worked for Barack Obama and is the author of The Master Switch and The Attention Merchants.



Short and sharp... an excellent primer for anyone who wants to understand why corporate wealth and power have grown so concentrated in the past four decades, and why that might be a problem for democracy.



Mr. Wu writes with elegance, conviction, knowledge - and certitude.



As Tim Wu argues in The Curse of Bigness, global economic concentration is now at levels unseen in more than a century - since the early days of industrial capitalism... Wu manages to make this brisk and impressively readable overview of the subject vivid and compelling.



It's a big idea for a little book, but Wu knows how to keep everything concise and contained. The Curse of Bigness moves nimbly through the thicket, embracing the boons of being small.