Best Books of 2019: Big Business by Tyler Cowen

Review of Big Business: A Love Letter to an American Anti-Hero by Tyler Cowen.

Big businesses are not perfect, and Cowen gives several examples. This is not a hagiography. Instead, Cowen argues that most people underestimate the amount of good that big businesses do. They make possible affordable communications, books, culture and art (and the supplies needed to make them), transportation that expands employment options for workers, safe and diverse food supplies, architecture, and more. As with many of Cowen’s books, it reads quickly and easily, almost a little too much so. When Cowen tosses out an insight or counterintuitive way of thinking about something, take a minute longer than he does to ponder it. This has been received as the prolific Cowen’s best book in some time, and I agree with the sentiment.