[semanticjudo]

Brokers (what the author calls "middlemen") have existed for ages and served all sorts of purposes in all sorts of economic activities. They serve a specific and valuable function in the economy.

The author muddles the point by bringing this into the equation. The core, valid issue raised is monopoly power. Which will naturally be the end goal of any enterprise. It is governments job to bring reasonable power to bear to prevent monopolies. Ours is failing to do this due to crony capitalism - all of the benefits both sides of the political aisle reap by maintaining the status quo.

[taffronaut]

I respectfully disagree. Brokers are a subset of middlemen. In many industries the role of a broker is well-defined and often regulated. A middleman can be a broker, an agent, a facilitator, price comparison site, wholesaler or any other intermediary mechanism. For organisations which seek to own all aspects of the intermediary space, and with a generally opaque representation of benefit to both suppliers and clients, the use of the term middleman seems more appropriate.