How middlemen took over the economy The Gray Area with Sean Illing

Vox's Emily Stewart talks with Kathryn Judge, professor at Columbia Law School and author of the new book Direct: The Rise of Middleman Economy and the Power of Going to the Source. They discuss how middlemen — which include real estate agents, stock brokers, but also Amazon and Walmart — came to assume such an outsized role in our economy, the pros and cons of middlemen in different market contexts, why Prof. Judge sees a fundamental difference between Etsy and Amazon, and how we consumers can change how we decide what to buy in order to help push the economy in a radically different direction.
Host: Emily Stewart (@EmilyStewartM), senior correspondent, Vox
Guests: Kathryn Judge (@ProfKateJudge), Harvey J. Goldschmid Professor of Law, Columbia University; author
References: 


Direct: The Rise of the Middleman Economy and the Power of Going to the Source by Kathryn Judge (Harper Business; 2022)


"So Much for Cutting Out the Middleman" by Kathryn Judge (The Atlantic; June 9)


"What Is Web3?" by Thomas Stackpole (Harvard Business Review; May 10)


"The awful American consumer" by Emily Stewart (Vox; Apr. 7)


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This episode was made by: 


Producer: Erikk Geannikis


Editor: Amy Drozdowska


Engineer: Patrick Boyd


Deputy Editorial Director, Vox Talk: Amber Hall


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