Corporate Consolidation is costing you $5,000 a year

I’m sure you could find better uses for that money than padding the pockets of shareholders in rich corporations

The number above comes from Thomas Phillippon in an interview with The New York Times, after his book The Great Reversal: How America Gave Up on Free Markets was published.  Uplifting reading.

It’s inserted into a story in Vox, America’s Monopoly Problem, explained by your internet bill.  Another fun read looking at how our internet prices are inflated by monopoly power, and how that power came from government decisions about what was best for the economy.  They are operating on the idea that a light touch is right and the market will efficiently take care of itself.  But the efficiency is for those running companies that dominate their sectors of the economy, and hurts the rest of us.

Robert Bork, he of Borked fame, started us down this road.  And his business-friendly thinking is so deep, it’s hard to see.