Competition is dying. That's the latest complaint against American business. We have too many supersized firms, excessively large and unnaturally profitable. Dubious mergers, permitted by toothless antitrust laws, boost companies' market power and squash rivals. The lifeblood of a dynamic economy is competition; its erosion — if true — would be a momentous event.
But is it true? Let's see.
Superficially, there's ample corroborating evidence. Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Apple and some other tech firms are massive and have dominant market positions in their chosen fields. Google — to take one obvious example — has about 90 percent of the Internet search market.
Read Full Article »