When you walk into a McDonald’s, it looks like one company. But legally, the person making your fries probably doesn’t work for McDonald’s at all. Brian Callaci, Chief Economist at the Open Markets Institute and author of Chains of Command, joins Nick and Goldy to explain how franchising became a blueprint for corporate control without responsibility — shifting risk, liability, and labor costs onto franchisees and workers while profits flow upward.
Brian Callaci is the chief economist at the Open Markets Institute and author of Chains of Command: The Rise and Cruel Reign of the Franchise Economy.
Social Media:
@briancallaci.bsky.social
@brian_callaci
briancallaci.com
Further reading:
Chains of Command: The Rise and Cruel Reign of the Franchise Economy
Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America by Marcia Chatelain
Sectoral bargaining FAQ: Collective bargaining, sectoral wage and standards boards, and worker power
The Founder (2016)
Continental T.V., Inc. v. GTE Sylvania, Inc., 433 U.S. 36 (1977)
Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust & Monopoly Hearing on Distribution problems affecting small business. Part 1: franchising agreements, March (1965)
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