Why Is America Turning Against Big Business?
About this episode
The episode explores the declining confidence in big business in America and its implications for the economy and democracy.
A Gallup poll reported last year that just 15% of Americans said they had a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in big business, a record low. Since then, fear of artificial intelligence has made matters worse. So why is big business increasingly unpopular in Donald Trump's America? What does it tell us about the state of the nation and the long-term strength of the world's largest economy? On this week's Trumponomics, host Stephanie Flanders explores those questions with Bloomberg Opinion global business columnist Adrian Wooldridge. He says the root of this malaise may be a US corporate culture that's shifted from genuine risk-taking entrepreneurship toward a mix of oligarchic tech elites and bloated bureaucracies, fueled by market concentration and declining competition. Later, Flanders and Wooldridge explore whether AI will in turn disrupt these dominant firms or further entrench their power — and what the backlash against tech could mean for politics, capitalism and American democracy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
People in this episode
Host: Stephanie Flanders
Guest: Adrian Wooldridge
Topics covered
- big business
- public opinion
- corporate culture
- artificial intelligence
- politics
- capitalism
- American democracy
Keywords
- big business
- confidence
- corporate culture
- artificial intelligence
- politics
- economy
- market concentration
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Bloomberg
Products: artificial intelligence
Places: America
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- Why the US Must Engage China on AI Safety Before It’s ‘Game Over’
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