Business Insider, Dec 7, 2019: Nobel Laureate Economist Joseph Stiglitz: It’s Time For Congress To Do Something About The Economic Mess That Private-Equity Giants Have Created
Over the past decade, a large body of research has confirmed what many of us have long suspected, namely that American capitalism is a far cry from the textbook model of a competitive, efficient economy. Instead, the United States is now home to far too many of what economists call “rent seekers.”
These are economic actors who take advantage of others through market power, through individual vulnerabilities and through inside or unequal information. They grab an unfairly large slice of the pie at the expense of other people, rather than adding to the nation’s wealth.
Markets, where rent-seeking is prevalent, are neither efficient nor fair, and they help explain America’s increasing inequality and weakening growth.
