The Pros and Cons of Our “Middleman Economy”

Kathryn Judge, a finance professor at Columbia Law School, is
troubled by the rise of intermediary platforms between products and
services and the customers who eventually purchase them. Thanks to
technology and globalization, she shows how the importance of
“middlemen” in the value chain has increased, along with the length
of global supply chains. Judge details the downsides and risks of
this trend. And she explains how customers and workers alike can
lead to intermediaries offering more transparency and social value.
Judge wrote the book "Direct: The Rise of the Middleman Economy and
the Power of Going to the Source.”