The systemic risks of financial concentration
For many years, concentration was portrayed almost exclusively as a sign of success. The most efficient companies grow, acquire competitors, and attract capital and talent, while markets reward those that achieve the scale needed to innovate. All of this is true. But beyond a certain point, scale no longer generates efficiency alone; it also creates dependence. When debt, savings, technology, and market power become concentrated in the hands of a few entities and in a limited number of places, a localized problem can spread throughout the entire system. The defining concept of our time, therefore, ...