I was interviewed for a podcast on zombie companies produced by The Conversation. Drawing on my recent article with Joseph Baines on corporate debt, the main message I tried to get across is that, when it comes to so-called zombie companies, we need to be careful what we wish for. Some mainstream pundits are seeing the Covid-19 pandemic as an opportunity to ‘trim the fat’ and rid the economy of these struggling, uncompetitive zombies. But our research suggests that the problem isn’t with zombie companies per se, but with increasing corporate concentration and the consolidation of power at the very top of the business hierarchy. Many smaller companies have been ‘zombified’ simply because they lack access to the cheap finance enjoyed by the oligopolistic giants that dominate key sectors. A new wave of defaults and bankruptcies is likely to accelerate the concentration that has been taking place over the past few decades. Some of the potential consequences of this will be wage stagnation and less innovation.