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Antitrust: Difference between revisions
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This is normally harmless nest-feathering of course, and simply allows parasitic law firms to nuzzle away at the collective arteries of the financial system in how they write [[Netting opinion|netting opinions]] unbothered by earnest attempts to force them into some kind of consistency, but occasionally, as in the [[Archegos]] situation, the paranoid fear of one kind of opprobrium — being told off for collaborating in an anticompetitive way —can lead to the very real prospect of another — losing, between you, 10 billion dollars. | This is normally harmless nest-feathering of course, and simply allows parasitic law firms to nuzzle away at the collective arteries of the financial system in how they write [[Netting opinion|netting opinions]] unbothered by earnest attempts to force them into some kind of consistency, but occasionally, as in the [[Archegos]] situation, the paranoid fear of one kind of opprobrium — being told off for collaborating in an anticompetitive way —can lead to the very real prospect of another — losing, between you, 10 billion dollars. | ||
===Calling Antitrust: come in, Antitrust=== | |||
But here’s the funny thing. We fear the shadow of the antitrust reaper — and the odd careless executive might get thrown in jail for some small collusion — but on the grand scale, in terms of policing the basic thing antitrust is meant to stop — businesses acquiring and then exploiting [[dominant position|dominant positions in the market]] — the antitrust authorities are absent without official leave. | But here’s the funny thing. We fear the shadow of the antitrust reaper — and the odd careless executive might get thrown in jail for some small collusion — but on the grand scale, in terms of policing the basic thing antitrust is meant to stop — businesses acquiring and then exploiting [[dominant position|dominant positions in the market]] — the antitrust authorities are absent without official leave. | ||
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Few of these businesses had the sort of reach and dominance of Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Meta, yet we hear little from the regulators — some noise from the EU, almost none from the Americans. | Few of these businesses had the sort of reach and dominance of Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Meta, yet we hear little from the regulators — some noise from the EU, almost none from the Americans. | ||
Those in the know will say, | Those in the know will say, “well, you see, it is all about whether the ''customer'' is hurt”. | ||
Standard Oil gouged working class stiffs with its prices at the pump. But do you see the retail customers complaining about Apple, Google and Amazon? Facebook is free, for crying out loud! | |||
This is, we think, to apply a narrow lens. The question here is about the orderly operation of markets, and a key component of that is ''[[scale]]''. | This is, we think, to apply a narrow lens. The question here is about the orderly operation of markets, and a key component of that is ''[[scale]]''. | ||