Seeking public comments (in comments section)
How Politicians Created Every Major Monopoly and Economic Problem
By Mike Holly
Americans Against Monopolies
Table of Contents
Colonial Period (1660s-1776)
Federalist Era
Seeking public comments (in comments section)
How Politicians Created Every Major Monopoly and Economic Problem
By Mike Holly
Americans Against Monopolies
Table of Contents
Colonial Period (1660s-1776)
Federalist Era (1783-1820s)
Free Banking Era (1820s-1860s)
Gilded Age (1860s-1900)
Progressive Era (1900-1920s)
New Deal Era (1933-1945)
Golden Age (1950-1970s)
Deregulation Era (1970s-2000)
Globalism Era (2000-2016)
Nationalism Era (2016-)
Throughout American history, elected public officials have created virtually every major monopoly, monopolized every major industrial sector and allowed the monopolies to cause every major economic problem. The U.S. government has also used propaganda and imperialism to spread monopolies and misfortune worldwide.
Politicians have always favored authoritarianism over capitalism and monopoly over competition. They have directly created monopolies (including oligopolies) in all major industrial sectors by imposing authoritarian policies favoring preferred corporations and other special interests. The cronyism has denied others the freedom to compete with the monopolies on a level playing field.
Politicians are also responsible for the monopolization promoted by these politically-established monopolies throughout the economy, particularly among cronies, partners, referrals, suppliers, customers and bankers. Monopolies help each other by providing exclusive partnerships, preferential purchases, low-cost deals and support for political favoritism.
In 2017, University economists Jan De Loecker and Jan Eeckhout found monopolies are leading to basically every economic problem.(1) Monopolies have slowed economic growth and caused recessions, financial crises and depressions. They restrict the supply of goods and services so they can inflate prices and profits above competitive levels, while also reducing quality.(2) This has stressed the finances of consumers. In addition, monopolies have decreased wages for non-monopolists by decreasing the competition for workers. This has led to wealth disparity, underemployment, unemployment and poverty.
Monopolies have also led to many, if not most, societal problems. The poverty has led to crime and drug use.(3) Monopolies discriminate against outsiders, especially women and minorities. They block innovation, the key to long-term prosperity. They prevent people from solving problems like cancer, pollution and climate change. Monopolies have led to imperialism and wars.(4)
Today, the eight major industrial sectors, controlling about 92 percent of the economy (GDP), are dominated by special interests receiving preferential political policies:
- Banking (8%) is monopolized through the Federal Reserve central bank (Fed) that regulates the banks and favors big over small banks, especially when controlling interest rates through the buying and selling of bonds from and to the big banks, respectively. (5)
- Housing (15%) is monopolized through the Fannie/Freddie home mortgage duopoly and Federal Housing Administration (FHA) that finance and promote larger homes and urban sprawl; while local politicians favor real estate developer cronies.(6)
- Health care (18%) is monopolized through state licensure laws restricting the supply of doctors and other health professionals (according to Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman(7)), certificate-of-need laws limiting the supply of hospitals, government and government-encouraged corporate buyer monopolies, and federal drug patent and other intellectual property laws.
- Agriculture (8%) is monopolized through subsidies favoring traditional crops and the monopolies selling inputs for and outputs from those crops, including seeds (e.g., GMO), corporate mono-culture farms and junk food processors.(8) The subsidies discourage the development of alternative crops, diversified family farms and healthier foods. Subsidized crop exports traded by international conglomerates have been rendering agriculture in the developing world uncompetitive.(9)
- Energy (12%) is monopolized through the U.S. government-encouraged OPEC oil cartel(10a) while U.S. electricity and natural gas markets are controlled by territorial utility monopolies.(10b) The utility monopolies conduct rigged bidding of power supplies favoring cronies.(11) The U.S. also creates energy monopolies by picking winners and losers among fuel types. Big Oil & Gas receives preferential exemptions from environmental regulations for fracking.(12) The natural gas by-product of oil fracking is favored over otherwise lower-cost coal in base-load electricity markets and for backing up favored wind and solar energy. Wind and solar energy, and also ethanol fuel made from corn and cellulose, receive tailored mandates and subsidies that block the development of other potentially lower-cost energies including renewables. (13)
- Transportation (10%) is monopolized through government regulations, including bailouts, favoring the Big Three automakers(14) and airport favoritism for the four major airlines.(15)
- Technology (8%) is monopolized through patents and