BIG BUSINESS MONOPOLIES
News Corp recently added its voice to complaints that tech giants, including Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple, have become too dominant in the sectors they control. This is something that News Corp itself has been implicated for in the past for having too big a stake in its own industry, so it was interesting to see the organization that this positions against big business. But this is not new, as in previous U.S. “antitrust” movements to break up monopolies in the oil, steel, transport and retail sectors have happened before with businesses benefitting from splitting upmonop- olies into smaller parts. Irving Oil was a beneficiary of the breakup of U.S. energy monopoly Standard Oil and with a more fractured market, the Canadian company was able to compete and thrive. Most business analysts seem to agree that that the breakup of AT&T into the seven “Baby Bells” in 1982 by then U.S. President, Ronald Reagan administration led to both a surge in innovation and competition for the sector. Governments may decide that short-term benefits make it essential to limit the monopoly power of large companies like Amazon, Facebook and Apple, it is interesting to note that these same concerns were made of former dominating giants like New Corp, AT&T, IBM, and Sears which have long been over shadowed by the new giants that we see dominating business and industry today.
WHOLESALE PRICES UP SLIGHTLY IN THE U.S. Responding to three straight months of falling U.S. wholesale prices which were up 0.1 percent for the last month according to the producer price index, which measures price changes before they reach the consumer. According to the U.S. Labor Department despite an unemployment rate near a five-decade low and faster wage growth, inflation is still well under control. The recent consumer price index, increased just 1.5 per cent in February from a year ago driven by more expensive gas, travel and hotel costs.
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MARCH 2019 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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