Steve LeVine — Special Report: A new — unknown — world

The global elite has come to realize that the 70-year old power structure has collapsed.

Axios
Special Report: A new — unknown — world
Steve LeVine

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The main flaw with capitalism, critics here and elsewhere argue, is that nowhere is it practiced as it is meant to be: capitalism is supposed to be hellishly competitive; and, in addition to featuring an invisible hand, it's supposed to have a heart.Instead, say increasing numbers of critics, market power is concentrated across industries. In the U.S., four airlines control more than 65% of the market; in cellphone service, the top four have 80%; and in drug stores it's about 70%, according to "The Myth of Capitalism," a new book by Jonathan Tepper. This is not to mention the market power exerted by Big Tech.

As to empathy, the problem goes back to Adam Smith, the father of capitalism. Mainstream economists tend to ignore Smith's appeal to the better nature of the human race — for "following our conscience [and] ... promoting the happiness of mankind," according to the Adam Smith Institute.
The neglect of this dimension is a culprit in the grievances of the world's down-on-their-luck rust belts, coal towns, and factory centers.

"The way [capitalism] has been practiced has been corrosive to some of the conditions that made it an attractive system," Christopher Eisgruber, president of Princeton University, tells Axios. "The practice has undermined some of the cultural supports that made it successful."

The bottom line: "Large segments of society are excluded from the fruits of economic growth," said Adam Tooze, an economic historian at Columbia University. "And the corporate world is deeply worried about legitimacy."

Lose legitimacy and you are done, as President Macron is learning in the streets.

The elites running the capitalist system are at risk of losing control