my 2 kopeks: it was under Clinton (or perhaps under Bush I or even Reagan) that anti-trust was shelved. The idea was that with globalization of competition in product markets, anti-trust wasn't needed. Of course, not all products have globalized markets...
------------------------ Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine > -----Original Message----- > From: Eugene Coyle [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Monday, February 09, 2004 2:14 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [PEN-L] The economy - a new era? > > > Has the US economy entered a new era? > > It seems to me that the US Department of Justice, along with other > relevant agencies, has lost interest in enforcing antitrust laws. > > I think we are back to the 1880s and 1890s, where "Trusts" and "pools" > will rationalize capacity for the good of all? > > Banks and insurance companies agglomerate. Electric power > generation is > falling into fewer and fewer hands, and those hands are more and more > financial institutions. Big oil gets bigger. Big steel consolidates > while the steel market sags. ADM and Cargill thrive while > the number of > farmers shrinks. > > Am I generalizing from the worst possible input, anecdotal evidence? > > I've always loved anecdotal evidence -- I continue to believe what is > before my eyes. I believed that smoking cigarettes caused > lung cancer. > I still do, actually. > > But clue me in: Are we moving to tight oligopoly everywhere > in our economy? > > PEN-l doesn't much discuss economics, as Michael complains. > But when it > does, it discusses macro. Anybody looking at market structure? > > Gene Coyle >
