Re: The economy - a new era?

["Devine, James" <jdevine@xxxxxxx>]

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 jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine




> -----Original Message-----
> From: Eugene Coyle [mailto:eugenecoyle@xxxxxxx]
> Sent: Monday, February 09, 2004 2:14 PM
> To: PEN-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> 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
>