13 September 2012 - robber barons 4

If you’re the very best greedy rent-seeking (that’s economist-speak for twisting the rules to make money without working) corporation, who do you prey on? Other corporations, they have more money than puny consumers. And how do you squeeze out their lifeblood, which they’re quite skilled at holding on to? You must create a monopoly of knowledge, a product that they need but don’t understand—in other words, you must be the financial industry, simultaneously a fundamental underpinning of global civilization and a ravenous hellhound bent on devouring all. Well, “monopoly of knowledge” isn’t really the right term, some of their derivatives they don’t understand themselves.