The Monopoly Playbook

The Monopoly Playbook takes readers inside the strategies that define today’s economy, where tech giants and media empires operate by a new set of rules. From Facebook’s network effects to Amazon’s vertical dominance and Disney’s content empire, the book shows how scale, data, and control of distribution create markets that tilt toward monopoly power. Using vivid examples, it explains why services that seem “free” actually come with hidden costs, how algorithms shape industries, and why the old lessons of competition no longer apply.

But this isn’t just a story about business—it’s about the consequences for all of us. The Monopoly Playbook explores what concentrated market power means for consumers, workers, innovation, and even democracy itself. It examines how regulators struggle to keep pace, why “winner-take-all” dynamics reshape entire economies, and what policy options could level the playing field. Accessible yet rigorous, the book equips readers with the tools to understand and challenge the monopolistic forces reshaping modern life—and to see why the future of capitalism depends on the choices we make today.