It seems inevitable that Oprah Winfrey, America’s empathiser-in-chief, would emerge as the Democratic dream of a candidate to beat Donald Trump in 2020. As an African-American woman, she speaks to any number of interest groups and political issues around identity, from #MeToo to Black Lives Matter.
But as the most popular all-round female media star in the US over the past several decades, with a television, movie and magazine empire, she also talks to the middle. Oprah is, like our current president, a global brand, which is telling. We are living in a superstar economy in which the top individuals, companies and even geographic regions command hugely disproportionate power, wealth and attention.
Since the late 1990s, we’ve seen the rise of the superstar company. According to the McKinsey Global Institute, three industries — tech, finance and healthcare and pharma — have seen their share of profits nearly triple since then, to about 45 per cent of all corporate profits in the US (the concentration in these industries is also increasing, albeit to a lesser extent in other rich countries).