Are our markets really free? (With Denise Hearn)

Are you an airline that dominates all the flights at a particular airport (e.g. Delta in Atlanta)? Are you a global beer conglomerate that controls half the beer brands on the planet? Or, are you a gloomy corporate type that owns half the funeral parlors in America? If so, then YOU might be an oligopolist. 

 

No, this isn’t a new Jeff Foxworthy routine with a decidedly Econ 101 vibe—it’s a conversation with Denise Hearn (co-author of The Myth of Capitalism: Monopolies and the Death of Competition) about the limits of competition in our market economy. 

 

How does this relate to money and happiness? Well, it’s yet another gut-check for us to examine the world in which we live and to question the narratives that drive our lives. Is America really a meritocracy? Are our markets really free? Is Paul's success a product of his hard work or the result of having truly fabulous hair? If nothing else, asking these questions will make us more aware of the forces that shape our lives, for better or worse. Also, you’ll get to hear Paul make healthcare jokes so insanely dumb that his guest doesn’t know whether to laugh with him or at him.  

 

You will not need a PhD in economics to follow the conversation. All you need to remember is that feeling you feel when you realize a roundtrip ticket to Cincinnati (a market dominated by Delta) is $700, but a ticket to market also served by Southwest Airlines is $114.  

 

Denise Hearn's writing has been featured in publications like the The Washington Post, Quartz, and The Globe and Mail. She has presented to over 50,000 people around the world at venues including the Oxford Union, Bloomberg, and the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents’ Club. She holds an MBA from the Oxford's Saïd Business School where she co-chaired the Social Impact Oxford Business network, and has a BA in International Studies from Baylor University. She resides in Seattle with her husband, and enjoyed hiking, singing and breaking conversational norms at parties. (Ha!)

 

Learn more about Denise on her website. 

Find out more about Crazy Money and Paul Ollinger on his website and/or follow him on the socials: 

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Produced and edited by Mike Carano

If I were you, I would have stopped reading way up above the links to my social accounts, but you're still here. Why? Don’t you have anything more interesting to do?

Well, while you’re here, email me on [email protected] to suggest future guests or to tell me the best thing that’s happened to you since March 15 and I’ll mention it on next week’s show. (Just putting that here means I’m going to get spammed by a bunch of hackers from former Soviet republics.)

 

Okay, really. Go do something. Listen to another one of my interviews. Or write a kind review of the show taking care to mention my rare combination of intellect, wit, and humility. 

 

Have a good day.