America’s monopoly problem, in one chart

The shadow side of Baby Boomers. Unregulated monopolies are the crisis Baby Boomers created and wish not to acknowledge.

By Emily Stewartemily.stewart@vox.com Nov 26, 2018:

From cellphone providers to beer to cat food, consumers have a lot fewer choices when it comes to buying — even if they don’t know it.

… If anything, the chart here understates consolidation, because it doesn’t yet cover energy, telecommunications and some other areas. It also doesn’t cover local monopolies, such as hospitals that are dominant enough to drive up prices.
…
“Monopolization across the economy, I think, is the core reason for all of these economic and social problems that we’re talking about that for years have been a headwind into progress on anything from raising wages to entrepreneurship to reducing political polarization to reducing corruption and power in politics,” Miller said.
…
https://www.vox.com/2018/11/26/18112651/monopoly-open-markets-institute-report-concentration

Matt Stoller podcasts and articles on Medium.com

Looking at the above, I’m sure many readers say, “What can I do about this? Nothing.”