Do you want the real story about who destroyed America’s REAL economy?

We wanted to recommend a new book that just hit the shelves. In Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism And The Economics Of Destruction, New America Foundation’s Barry C. Lynn takes an explosive look at how Wall Street financiers took advantage of the overthrow of our antimonopoly laws to consolidate unprecedented powers.

They use these powers in ways that destroy jobs, degrade safety, crush independent businesses, forestall innovation, harm our environment, and threaten the political foundations of our democratic republic.

Not surprisingly, Walmart is a major player in this disturbing story. Lynn discusses Walmart as one of the quintessential examples of the destructive monopoly, arguing that Walmart needs to change its ways not just for the benefit of workers or communities, but for the entire economy.

Here is what others are saying about Cornered:

Cornered has changed my view of what’s gone wrong with American capitalism. Brilliantly argued and meticulously reported, it confronts with the age-old enemy of both progressives and libertarian conservatives—the power of monopoly.
-Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed and Brightsided.

This book is essential to understanding how we got into our current mess.
-Michael Mandel, chief economist, BusinessWeek.

This is a truly groundbreaking and eye-opening work that everyone interested in understanding how the world really operates should read.
-Ha Joon Chang, winner Leontief Prize in economics, author Bad Samaritans.

What do Wal-Mart and the 18th Century British East India Company (BEIC) have in common? According to Huffington Post contributor Thom Hartmann, they both were the corporate Goliaths of their time.

While today’s “Tea Party” protesters are expressing a vague “taxes are bad” message, the protesters of 1773, like those opposing Wal-Mart today, stood up against the BEIC’s monopoly on an industry. In this case it was their control of the tea trade, which squeezed small colonial tea shops to the brink of bankruptcy. Indeed, as Hartmann writes, the colonists’ subsequent defiance of Britain’s and the BEIC’s economic stranglehold through the Boston Tea Party was a key turning point on the road to revolution and the formation of a new United States of America. Today, as then, America is facing the consequences of Wal-Mart’s and other corporations’ power run amok.

It’s a great piece - read the whole thing:

Thom Hartmann: The Real Boston Tea Party was Against the Wal-Mart of the 1770s [Huffington Post]

CNBC Correspondent Rick Santelli called for a “Chicago Tea Party” on Feb 19th in protesting President Obama’s plan to help homeowners in trouble. Santelli’s call was answered by the right-wing group Freedomworks, which funds campaigns promoting big business interests, and is the opposite of what the real Boston Tea Party was. FreedomWorks was funded in 2004 by Dick Army (former Republican House Majority leader & lobbyist); consolidated Citizens for a Sound Economy, funded by the Koch family; and Empower America, a lobbying firm, that had fought against healthcare and minimum-wage efforts while hailing deregulation.

Anti-tax “tea party” organizers are delivering one million tea bags to a Washington, D.C., park Wednesday morning - to promote protests across the country by people they say are fed up with high taxes and excess spending.

The real Boston Tea Party was a protest against huge corporate tax cuts for the British East India Company, the largest trans-national corporation then in existence. This corporate tax cut threatened to decimate small Colonial businesses by helping the BEIC pull a Wal-Mart against small entrepreneurial tea shops, and individuals began a revolt that kicked-off a series of events that ended in the creation of The United States of America.

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Yesterday we posted a story from the U.K. about a list of “requests” Asda’s magazine purchaser made of its suppliers. Among the set of outrageous demands: profit improvements, new fees for store space and two pages of editorial space in every publication.

As is so often the case with Wal-Mart, once its exploitative behavior was exposed to the light of day the retailer backpedaled furiously, said the demands were “a mistake” and blamed some poor low-level executive.

This isn’t an isolated incident, however, of Wal-Mart using its power unfairly. The statement of one publishing industry insider could be applied to any one of a number of industries that Wal-Mart has relentlessly bullied in to lowering prices:

“Its absurd demands show a complete failure to comprehend the costs of producing a magazine. A demand for two pages of advertising/editorial in each magazine is tantamount to blackmail.”

For those who argue that Wal-Mart’s monopsony is good for consumers, think about a world where corporations write your magazine articles. Wal-Mart’s marketplace dominance might mean lower prices, but it seems unwise to trust a corporation with so much power.

Asda admits ‘mistake’ in magazine distribution row [Brand Republic]

Asda has told Campaign that it made a mistake when it asked magazine distributors to grant it free editorial space in titles of its choosing.

Magazine publishers have branded Asda a “schoolyard bully” after it proposed changes to distribution arrangements that insiders say would “devastate” the industry.

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