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The Missing Middle with Mike Moffatt and Sabrina Maddeaux
How Corporate Consolidation is Ruining Everything: Discussion with Denise Hearn and Vass Bednar
Jan 8, 2025
Denise Hearn, a Senior Fellow at the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment and co-author of "The Big Fix," joins economist Mike Moffatt and journalist Cara Stern to tackle the troubling effects of corporate consolidation in Canada. They discuss how monopolies create an illusion of competition, driving up prices and stalling wages. The conversation spans the impact on various sectors, including healthcare and veterinary services, and calls for urgent policy changes to foster genuine competition and innovation while amplifying voices of workers and small businesses.
40:39
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Quick takeaways
- Corporate consolidation creates a false sense of competition, leading consumers to pay higher prices while receiving similar quality products under different brands.
- The rise of monopsony power in labor markets, exacerbated by corporate consolidation, results in wage stagnation and diminished opportunities for workers.
Deep dives
Illusion of Market Competition
Corporate consolidation often creates a deceptive illusion of competition among brands, where many well-known products are actually owned by a select few companies. This dynamic is compared to professional wrestling, where wrestlers appear to compete but ultimately work for the same entity. Consumers tend to believe they are making choices among varied options, yet the ownership structures obscure the reality that these choices are often leading to similar profits regardless of which product is selected. Consequently, this consolidation not only diminishes true market competition but also leads to higher prices and reduced quality for consumers.
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Discover
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Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode