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Drew Rosenhaus, the most powerful agent in the NFL, infuriates team owners but manages to give clients what they want. In his own not-so-humble opinion, the NFL would fall apart without him.
LaJuan Stoxstill-Diggs, an appliance flipper on Craigslist, jumps on opportunities to buy used washers and dryers, trading them at prices and times that make sellers and buyers happy.
Julie McKenney, one of Colorado's most highly regarded wedding planners, not only helps her clients select the right florist, baker, and wedding-gown maker, but makes sure those vendors deliver their best work.
What do these very different businesspeople have in common? They are all middlemen, an indispensable part of our economy—and in The Middleman Economy, Silicon Valley author Marina Krakovsky argues that in our hyper-connected age they're more prevalent and more valuable than ever.
Krakovsky contends that middlemen provide value by playing some combination of six roles, with each role solving a problem that, without the middleman, would inhibit mutually beneficial deals. The Bridge promotes trade by reducing distance; The Certifier separates the wheat from the chaff and gives buyers reassuring information about quality; The Enforcer makes sure buyers and sellers put forth full effort, cooperate, and stay honest.
By showing how the most admirable brokers, agents, dealers, and other go-betweens play these and other roles, this book puts middlemen in a whole new light—and reveals how readers can become more valuable players in any industry.
If you're a literary agent offering a book to an editor, or an editor recommending that book to your publisher, or a sales rep in any field (as more than two million Americans are), you're not just pushing products. If you're worth your salt, you're a Certifier, staking your reputation on the quality of the goods you represent. Far from killing the middleman, the Internet has generated a thriving new breed. Between 1999 and 2010, just as the Internet was transforming the world, middlemen's contribution to the United States' GDP has actually grown - from a quarter to more than a third of our economy. In The Middleman Economy, Silicon Valley-based reporter Marina Krakovsky elucidates the six essential roles that middlemen play.