Vertical Integration and the Market Power Crisis

The US economy suffers from a market power problem that has invaded many sectors, including health care, telecommunications, and technology. As firms become more powerful, they are able to profit by taking advantage of other economic stakeholders rather than growing the overall economic pie. Competition as America once knew it—firms working to provide better goods and services at lower prices in order to win over customers—is increasingly a thing of the past. Instead, corporations today attempt to secure such large stakes in their given market, and to exclude potential entry, so that they do not need to compete. This objective is made evident by a wave of mergers and acquisitions, which have largely gone unchecked by enforcers.