In the News: Stacy Mitchell
September 30, 2017
Media Outlet: The Capital Institute
The Capital Institute’s mission is to search “for a new narrative that will illuminate how our economy and financial system can operate to promote a more just, regenerative, and thus sustainable way of living on this earth.” In that spirit, the Capital Institute’s Future of Finance blog wrote up a piece to cities urging them to do away with their hopes for Amazon’s second North American headquarters. In this blog post, the Capital Institute also mention’s the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s Amazon report; Amazon’s Stranglehold: How the Company’s Tightening Grip is Stifling Competition, Eroding Jobs, and Threatening Communities.
Here’s our citation:
As a brilliant and searing recent report released by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance points out, Amazon, valued at $450 billion, captures one in every two dollars Americans spend online, thanks in large part to the irresistible genius of Amazon Prime (I admit to being a member). Half of all online shopping searches start directly on Amazon, not on Google or individual retailers’ websites. Think about it. This would make even the railroad barons of earlier days blush.
Cities must think long term, and anyone who doesn’t consider a major anti-trust risk for Amazon that could materially undo its growth plans, even in our corrupt current political environment, is not thinking clearly. In fact, there is already rising bi-partisan clamor rightly agitating around the power of the mega tech platform companies, beginning with Amazon.
