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  1. #101
    dangerous floater Winehole23's Avatar
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    within one week of the merger, AT&T/Time Warner has proven USG Cassandras more or less correct:

    Within one week, AT&T announced a plan to use Time Warner’s television content to drive rival customers to its products. It’s just one of several announcements from the new conglomerate that show the government was right: AT&T is determined to use its economic and political power to expand its reach and dominate markets.

    On Thursday, AT&T unveiled a service called WatchTV, a “skinny bundle” of 31 television channels, many of them under AT&T’s control after the Time Warner merger, as well as on-demand content from those channels. Subscribers to AT&T’s two new unlimited data plans get WatchTV for free, and the pricier plan includes HBO, the crown jewel of the Time Warner merger. Non-AT&T customers who want WatchTV can get it for $15 per month—but without access to John Oliver and Silicon Valley, which would cost another $15 through HBO Now.

    AT&T considers this an expansion of consumer choice, a new option for cord-cutters seeking cheap streaming TV. But in reality, AT&T is using its exclusive access to HBO and other Time Warner programming to push people to sign up for its phone plans. It’s no coincidence that AT&T also quietly announced price increases for the unlimited data plans it’s trying to attract people to.
    https://newrepublic.com/article/1493...ernment-feared

  2. #102
    🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 ElNono's Avatar
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    The Justice Department will appeal the AT&T-Time Warner merger approval, according to a court do ent filed Thursday. In one of the largest U.S. an rust cases in decades, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled last month that the merger could go on despite the government's resistance. The feds did not seek a stay that would have prevented the merger from taking place, and AT&T and Time Warner closed the deal directly after Leon's ruling.

  3. #103
    dangerous floater Winehole23's Avatar
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    Boston Globe: break up Google.

    “It is ironic that the company perhaps most responsible for unleashing a tidal wave of human creativity, learning, and, yes, compe ion is also stifling it. It is frustrating compe ion, discouraging innovation, punishing American business, and distorting the free marketplace of commerce and ideas. Europe has led the wider fight over the right to privacy and the regulation of data, but the time is right for the United States to lead on dismantling tech monopolies — starting with the most powerful player. So, how to start? [T]here are several ways to carve up Alphabet, the holding company of which Google is by far the largest and most important piece….
    https://apps.bostonglobe.com/opinion.../break-google/

  4. #104
    I am that guy RandomGuy's Avatar
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    America isn't ed at all. In fact, any person born in the United States that isn't making decent/good money by the age of 35 is functionally re ed.

    Corporate mergers may provide fewer options for consumers, but larger corps also provide more stable and predictable income for workers. True monopolies should be broken, but large companies merging isn't always a bad thing. In fact, quite often it's a great thing.
    Not really. Even duopolies can curtail public utility (in the economics sense of that term).

    Historically small numbers of large companies invariably end up in cartel behavior, and rent-seeking.

    Further, tilting the balance of power to larger corporations means that labor's ability to negotiate is reduced, in a manner very similar to what happens with those company's products.

    Economics 101.

  5. #105
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    Housious is GODDAMN ing stupid, typical right wing fer brains

  6. #106
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    Amazon’s An rust Antagonist Has a Breakthrough Idea


    With a single scholarly article, Lina Khan, 29, has reframed decades of monopoly law.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/07/technology/monopoly-an rust-lina-khan-amazon.html



  7. #107
    dangerous floater Winehole23's Avatar
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    cool article, thanks for posting

  8. #108
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    cool article, thanks for posting
    yeah, will the oligarchy allow stricter anti-monopoly regulations? no

    pro-business / anti-employee+consumer extremist K or similar asshole gets seated, SCOTUS will be viciously 5-4 (even 6-3) pro-oligarchy, anti-non-oligarchy for decades.

  9. #109
    dangerous floater Winehole23's Avatar
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    you be you.

    no matter what happens, stick with one take.

  10. #110
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    you be you.

    no matter what happens, stick with one take.
    Occam's butcher knife: bloody with both explanatory and predictive power.

  11. #111
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    Monsanto-Bayer Merger Hurts Farmers and Consumers


    The U.S. Department of Justice issued a stern warning in its lawsuit against the conditionally-approved mega-merger between Bayer and Monsanto in June.

    The anti-compe ive price effects of the merger would, according to the DOJ,

    “likely result in hundreds of millions of dollars per year in harm, raising costs to farmers and consumers.”

    The Justice Department warned that the combining of Bayer and Monsanto

    would reduce compe ion for vegetable seeds, likely driving up prices.

    Further, farmers might see prices for GMO cotton, canola, corn and soybean seeds increase, as well as price increases for herbicide and seed treatments.


    After imposing some limited divestments on Monsanto,

    the DOJ approved this merger,

    enabling Monsanto to hide its controversial name brand

    while giving Bayer anti-compe ive control over seeds, pesticides, farmers and consumers worldwide.

    But the harm to consumers and farmers will still exist.


    https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/09...and-consumers/


  12. #112
    dangerous floater Winehole23's Avatar
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    Because of oligopolies, the US spends more on cellphone plans and and air travel than Europeans.

    Economic concentration is expensive.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...ecoming-a-myth

  13. #113
    I am that guy RandomGuy's Avatar
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    yeah, will the oligarchy allow stricter anti-monopoly regulations? no

    pro-business / anti-employee+consumer extremist K or similar asshole gets seated, SCOTUS will be viciously 5-4 (even 6-3) pro-oligarchy, anti-non-oligarchy for decades.
    you be you.

    no matter what happens, stick with one take.
    Is he wrong though?

    There is more than a little evidence that points to the US having transitioned into an oligopoly. The majority of wealth in the country is inherited, just as a short-hand sniglet.

    Big money conservatives have been pushing for control of courts and with Trump's presidency, winning that battle. the thread itself about consolidation points to the same, simply due to the gini effect.

    One has to wonder at this point.

  14. #114
    dangerous floater Winehole23's Avatar
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    Very good article (if from a European perspective) by Nick Shaxson about the relation of tax policies and monopolization:

    https://www.taxjustice.net/2019/11/0...nd-vice-versa/

  15. #115
    dangerous floater Winehole23's Avatar
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    TBTF:


  16. #116
    dangerous floater Winehole23's Avatar
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    Comcast imposes monthly data caps in the NE and Mid-Atlantic regions:

    At issue is Comcast’s move on Monday that caps home internet usage at 1.2TB of data per month for its customers in 12 additional states, and charging customers up to $100 per month if they exceed the cap. Comcast’s move was flagged by Stop The Cap, which discovered that the company had quietly updated language on its website. The new limits, which will take effect in March, are being imposed in states that have given Comcast and its subsidiaries more than $738 million in tax subsidies in the last few decades. Those states include New York, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, where state and local governments have given Comcast and its subsidiaries $484 million, $132 million, and $79 million in tax subsidies, respectively, according to data from Good Jobs First. In all, Comcast and its subsidiaries — which include NBC and MSNBC — have received nearly $1 billion in state and local subsidies. Additionally, Comcast received $861 million in federal tax subsidies during the first year of the Trump tax cuts, according to the Ins ute for Taxation and Economic Policy
    This is why monopolies are bad,” tweeted Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy organization. “Comcast can arbitrarily exploit us for profit during a pandemic just because it feels like it. Meanwhile, Comcast collects tons of tax breaks and government subsidies. Comcast should be broken up.”

    The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) recommended in March that internet service providers relax their data cap policies in order to “promote connectivity” during the pandemic. The recommendation was attached to an FCC campaign to ensure continued internet service throughout the pandemic, called the “Keep Americans Connected Pledge,” which Comcast signed. The pledge expired on June 30.

    https://www.dailyposter.com/p/comcas...llow-1-billion

  17. #117
    dangerous floater Winehole23's Avatar
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    New FCC appointees by president-elect Joe Biden could in theory crack down on data caps — but Biden and his party have deep ties to Comcast.

    In all over the last decade, Comcast donors have delivered more than $25 million to Democrats.

    During the presidential primaries, 17 top Comcast executives maxed out their federal contributions to Biden, while Pete Buttigieg was the only other Democratic contender to receive a contribution from a Comcast executive (and he received only one), according to reporting from Sludge in January. Comcast’s senior executive vice president and top lobbyist, David Cohen, hosted Biden’s kickoff fundraiser for his presidential campaign in 2019.

  18. #118
    Savvy Veteran spurraider21's Avatar
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    Virginia on that list... and Comcast is the only provider in the area

    there is technically CenturyLink, but all the local opinions ive seen is that Comcast is bad, but CLink is unusable

    there is the smaller more hipster Ting which is well reviewed, but its always "coming soon to your area" wherever I am

  19. #119
    dangerous floater Winehole23's Avatar
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    Is he wrong though?

    There is more than a little evidence that points to the US having transitioned into an oligopoly. The majority of wealth in the country is inherited, just as a short-hand sniglet.

    Big money conservatives have been pushing for control of courts and with Trump's presidency, winning that battle. the thread itself about consolidation points to the same, simply due to the gini effect.

    One has to wonder at this point.
    It's an interesting question. The recent appointment of two an rust profs by Biden might be a signal fire.

  20. #120
    dangerous floater Winehole23's Avatar
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    Last month, three judges on the fourth circuit issued an extraordinary decision against a window and door making firm called Jeld-Wen. Three judges - two appointed by Obama and one by Trump - order a break-up of Jeld-Wen. And it wasn't even the gov't who brought the case, but a private plaintiff.

    Jeld-Wen makes what are called doorskins, which make up the back and front of a door, and are expensive and difficult to produce. Jeld-Wen sold doorskins to door makers, but Jen-Weld also made and sold doors as well. So it both sold to its doorskin customers, and competed with them for the final buyer of doors.

    There were three makers of doorskins until 2012, when Jeld-Wen bought one of its main compe ors, CMI. Obama’s Department of Justice investigated the merger, twice, but didn’t do anything about it. Once there were only two players in the market, Jeld-Wen began cutting off its customers from being able to buy doorskins. Steves and Sons filed a suit in 2016, and a district court ruled in the plaintiff’s favor, ordering Jeld-Wen to sell the factory it bought from CMI. The fourth circuit just agreed.

    This is remarkable, and an important precedent. It is also an embarrassment for public enforcers. Private litigants have broken up more firms - one - than government enforcers have in two decades.
    https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/j...g-conglomerate

  21. #121
    dangerous floater Winehole23's Avatar
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    For maximum extraction of profit, monopolies take risks but offload the cost when foreseeable mishaps — like a mega-container ship blocking the Suez Canal — threaten supply chains.


  22. #122
    dangerous floater Winehole23's Avatar
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    it's like the early 20th century, compe ion-wise, but the global scale of the economies makes it worse.

    the dragons of finance and industry are buying up the world and renting it back to us.


  23. #123
    dangerous floater Winehole23's Avatar
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    It's an interesting question. The recent appointment of two an rust profs by Biden might be a signal fire.
    Lina Khan was confirmed.

  24. #124
    The Boognish FuzzyLumpkins's Avatar
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    Lina Khan was confirmed.
    I will wait until I see who Biden appoints head of an rust at DoJ. It's a smaller department than it was a 100 years ago and the vehicle that would actually be able to reverse this course.

  25. #125
    dangerous floater Winehole23's Avatar
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    I will wait until I see who Biden appoints head of an rust at DoJ. It's a smaller department than it was a 100 years ago and the vehicle that would actually be able to reverse this course.
    yeah, remains to be seen for sure

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