Reasonably Simple Economics: Why the World Works the Way It Does

The Middleman and the Entrepreneur

The Economy’s Matchmakers and Little Revolutionaries

Up until now we have paid attention largely to abstract things—markets, information, competition, and so on. This chapter investigates the role of two particular actors in the economic drama who play starring roles in it: the middleman specifically, and the entrepreneur more generally.

The Middleman

What do Apple’s iTunes, Walmart, and a literary or theatrical agent have in common? None of them directly produces things that consumers buy. Although two of them directly sell to consumers, one doesn’t even do that, but as an agent merely negotiates with music ...