Challenging Monopoly Power: Why Local Business is Better for People, the Planet, and Your Wallet with Stacy Mitchell
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
Nate Hagens
4.8 • 549 Ratings
🗓️ 22 October 2025
⏱️ 88 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Monopolistic business practices have been illegal in the United States for more than a century. Yet, monopoly power continues to accelerate in our modern commercial landscape. Large, powerful corporations edge out smaller businesses, often citing scale, "efficiency", and lower costs as their reasons for success. But looking more closely reveals a reality that is far different. Small businesses are more cost-effective and deliver better results to the people they serve than giant corporations. Furthermore, they form the backbone of engaged and connected communities. So what is actually preventing small businesses (and communities) from flourishing, and what can individuals do today to build economic power in their communities?
In this episode, Nate is joined by economic writer and strategist, Stacy Mitchell, to explore how concentrated economic power shapes the health of towns and cities – from economic resilience to social connectedness. They unpack why big businesses actually deliver poorer, pricier results and more vulnerable supply chains, yet are able squeeze smaller businesses out of the market. Stacy also sheds light on the United States' long history of breaking up monopolies through antitrust laws, and the policy developments in recent decades that have prevented their enforcement.
How do small businesses play an integral role in fostering resilient social capital? Why have we seen an increase in economic consolidation and inequality in the last several decades, and how can we reverse it? Finally, what practical steps can each of us take in our own communities to advance more localized economic systems that better serve people and the planet?
(Conversation recorded on September 18th, 2025)
About Stacy Mitchell:
Stacy Mitchell is a writer, strategist, and policy advocate. She is Co-Executive Director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, an organization that for five decades has challenged the wisdom of neoliberalism and championed local, community-oriented models. She also serves on the board of the Maine Center for Economic Policy.
Additionally, Stacy is the author of Big-Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America's Independent Businesses. In 2016, she co-authored Amazon's Stranglehold, an influential report that took a critical eye to the e-commerce giant. Congress cited her research on Amazon's monopolization strategy in its investigation of Big Tech's dominance in 2021 and her work informed the Federal Trade Commission's antitrust lawsuit against the company in 2023. She has also worked extensively at the local level, helping communities craft policies that support local entrepreneurship and vibrant commercial districts.
Watch this video episode on YouTube
Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.
---
Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | These companies are a kind of governing force in our lives, right? |
| 0:04.1 | We now have big corporations who decide who wins and loses in this economy, which community |
| 0:08.8 | is going to do well, which community is going to lose. |
| 0:11.1 | This is not a free market. |
| 0:12.8 | That is an entity or set of entities that are strong-arming the system and using their power |
| 0:16.6 | to drive out better competitors. |
| 0:19.7 | And if you start looking, what you see is that exact same story in different forms is going |
| 0:24.7 | on in one sector after another. |
| 0:27.1 | And it is the reason that locally owned businesses in many cases are disappearing. |
| 0:31.7 | It's not that they can't out-compete. |
| 0:33.8 | There are ways in which they actually outperform. |
| 0:36.6 | They are disappearing because we have allowed |
| 0:38.9 | large corporations monopolies, if you will, to essentially strong arm parts of our economy. |
| 0:46.9 | You're listening to The Great Simplification. I'm Nate Higgins. On this show, we describe how |
| 0:52.8 | energy, the economy, the environment, |
| 0:55.5 | and human behavior all fit together and what it might mean for our future. By sharing |
| 1:00.9 | insights from global thinkers, we hope to inform and inspire more humans to play emergent |
| 1:06.7 | roles in the coming great simplification. |
| 1:20.0 | Today I'm joined by Stacy Mitchell, who is the co-executive director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. |
| 1:22.0 | Stacey's work focuses on dissolving concentrated economic power and building thriving |
| 1:27.3 | communities and a healthy democracy. |
| 1:30.1 | Through her advocacy work, Stacey has advanced policies that expand community self-determination, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Nate Hagens, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Nate Hagens and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.