Ron Watson wrote: > > Enron was the largest wind producer in America. BP Bought and > throttled down Solarex, the most promising solar company in the > nation at one time. > > Amoco and GM purchasing and dismantling light rail to ensure that the > automobile became the mandatory mode of transportation in America.
I would love to hear more details about these two cases. I am not familiar with them. > Lobbying, in and of itself, is creation and maintenence of market > trends. It is not adapting, it is visionary. When a bill is introduced into Congress by, for instance, the environmentalists, business must react by lobbying against it. I don't consider this visionary. It is reactive, not proactive. In general, I don't see business acting as strongly as it could in such cases. But they are limited by responsibility to shareholders, to do only the minimum necessary to resist encroachments. It is conceivable that business could hide behind many layers and hire thugs to intimidate and kill their enemies by the dozen, never getting caught. Or stage well-publicized and intentional distribution shortages to, for example, withhold all cigarettes from New York City until cigarette taxes are lowered, smoking bans are dropped, or State House lawsuits retracted. Or even publish strongly worded full-page ads in the New York Times. Instead, they play meekly within the rules and obey when the laws find against them. Networks of corporate governance discourage risk and long-term planning.
