Thursday, January 12, 2023

New research suggests connections between market concentration and the exercise of political power in the United States — Laura Alexander

Ya think?

This system is "capitalist" in name only, in that competition is fundamental to the concept of "free market capitalism" that underlies its efficiency in production and also producing the kinds of goods that people prefer. Asymmetries, like "concentration," a euphemism for monopoly and monopsony, vitiate that and lead to asymmetries political power in addition to market power that vitiate the concept of democracy as rule of, by and for the people, as President Lincoln put it.

Is this happening? (Matt Stoller has been writing a lot on this lately.) Here is a study that suggests it may be.
Consolidation of markets at the hands of U.S. companies that are actively engaged in mergers and acquisitions raises an important question about the political ramifications of market concentration. Do mergers and acquisitions impact the lobbying clout of these acquisitive firms? A new working paper delves into this connection and finds some intriguing, if also preliminary, affirmative evidence.

“Political Power and Market Power,” by Bo Cowgill and Andrea Prat at Columbia Business School and Tommaso Valletti at the Imperial College Business School, documents a positive association between mergers and lobbying activities, and finds some evidence for a positive association of mergers with political campaign contributions. These findings and the economic model the co-authors employ in their research are not robust enough, as is, for U.S. antitrust enforcers to measure these connections between political power and market concentration quantitatively, though the findings advance conceptional frameworks for better understanding this nexus in the qualitative context of the political economy of the United States.…

See also at WCEG

Political Power and Market Power
Bo Cowgill, Andrea Prat, Tomasso M. Valetti

12 comments:

Matt Franko said...

More “neoliberal conspiracy!” theories…

Yo, these morons think we are “out of money!” … we see it EVERY DAY… top people…

They’re DUMB…

Matt Franko said...

These large corporations make political donations expecting regulatory accommodations or subsidies….

What does that have to do with these morons thinking munnie is REAL and we can run out of it therefore we cannot have fiscal support for social welfare?

NOTHING..,

If we had more fiscal support for social welfare these firms would make EVEN MORE munnie… they would lobby for MORE of it…

Look at Dimon now “hey! Let’s go up to 6%!”… They would make MORE munnie…

This is all a result of the practices of your Platonist liberal Art side of the academe where everyone comes out comprehending Monetarism or they flunk the student out…

It’s in effect brainwashing (figure of speech) or what Paul termed “dianoia” literally ‘thru-mind’…

And you people will never admit your Platonist academic methodology is the cause of this failure in outcomes..

You’re too vain to admit it so you have to come up with these word salad conspiracy theories.

Matt Franko said...

“ power that vitiate the concept of democracy as rule of, by and for the people,”

Yo, the people all think we are “out of money!”…. where does that come from?… wake the f-ck up…

Ahmed Fares said...

They’re DUMB…

Hmm..., this is interesting. He wanted to write "Art Degree morons" but then checked himself...

As an aside, I agree that these people wrongly focus on money instead of resources, but I have no idea what that has to do with Platonism. We should at least define what Platonism is. Here's one description:

Attributed to Plato, it is a philosophical paradigm suggesting that the physical perceived world is not as real as absolute unchangeable ideas, referred to as Forms. All objects in the physical world, including humans, have a non-physical essence that is their Form, while the real-world version is just an imperfect imitation. Plato consistently focused on the Theory of Forms, suggesting that Forms are the objects that provide knowledge, and studying them allows one to identify flaws in the real world, taking action to strive towards perfection. Plato maintained an idealistic philosophy and believed that experimental reasoning and metaparer is enough to prove the concept and establish the quality of an object (Miller & Jensen, 2006).

Aristotle strongly critiqued and rejected the Theory of Forms that Plato proposed. The primary difference in opinion lies in the relation of forms to different objects. Plato supported transcendent forms, while Aristotle argued for immanent forms.


source: Am I Aristotelian or a Platonist?

I'm with Plato on this one. What Plato calls the "World of Forms" we in Islam call the world of the malakut, equivalent to the Hebrew malkuth. It's also what Jesus called the "Kingdom of Heaven" which , according to the Bible, those of you are Christians are supposed to be seeking.

And thus we showed Abraham the malakut of the heavens and the earth, so that he might be of those who have certainty. Qur'an 6: 75

Ahmed Fares said...

This is interesting. The Wikipedia page on malkuth has this:

From a Christian viewpoint this sphere is important since Jesus preached that people should "seek first the Kingdom of God". In some systems, it is equated with Da'at, knowledge in the sense of Gnosis, the invisible sephirah. In comparison with Eastern systems, Malkuth is a very similar archetypal idea to that of the Muladhara chakra. In Shakta Tantra, which is also associated with the Earth, this is the plane in which karma is expressed.

Although Malkuth is seen as the "lowest" sephiroth on the tree of life, it also contains within it the potential to reach the highest. This is exemplified in the Hermetic maxim 'As above so below', and "Kether is in Malkuth, and Malkuth is in Kether".

In popular culture

David Bowie's 1976 song "Station to Station" references the concept in the line "Here are we, one magical movement from Kether to Malkuth/There are you, you drive like a demon from station to station."

Swiss metal band Samael have released a song titled "From Malkuth to Kether" on their 1998 Exodus EP.

See also

Malakut

Ahmed Fares said...

Al-Ghazali draws a sharp distinction between the alam al-mulk ("World of Dominion") and the malakut ("World of Sovereignty"). The first is a sensual world of here and now, while the latter an intelligible everlasting world over which God presides, jinn (angels and devils) dwell, and revelation originates. The sensual world appears to be for al-Ghazali mere delusion, and a shadow of the real (haqq) world, which is malakut.

Some of you might recognize Plato's allegory of the cave in the above.

Peter Pan said...

Platonism belongs in the kitchen, or dining-room.

Matt Franko said...

this is interesting. He wanted to write "Art Degree morons" but then checked himself...“

I was describing the result in this case not the methodology…

dumb is the result… Art Degree is the methodology that gets them there…

Matt Franko said...

https://reference.jrank.org/psychology/Learning_Dialogic_Learning.html

“ Dialogic learning has a long history, dating back at least to Socrates in ancient Greece, ”

It was invented by Socrates then institutionalized by his student Plato (Aristocles) when he formed the academe.….

Liberal Art institutions are still using this methodology today it is their founding principle…

It is non discriminatory… (Jesus: “use the narrow gate”)

It doesn’t work… we can see this every day…

Peter Pan said...

Then:
Slaves have to be disciplined or they won't work hard.
So we can't give up corporal punishment.

And now:
Workers have to be disciplined or they won't work hard.
So we can't have a job guarantee.
But that doesn't sound nice, so we better keep saying we're out of money.
If people believe us, we can tank the economy, and discipline workers some more.
Rinse and repeat.

Peter Pan said...

nice = constructive

Ahmed Fares said...

Liberal Art institutions are still using this methodology today it is their founding principle…

They're not doing dialog. It's all indoctrination now.

Proving my point! Speaker thanks militant transgender protestors for shutting down his event at McGill University - where he was to talk about how trans zealots RUIN free speech

Or how about this recent one:

Woke leaders at USC's School of Social Work will stop using the term 'field' in the curriculum and practice because it is considered racist

Here in Canada, Brownies are now Embers.

Brownies to be renamed Embers in effort to remove barriers for racialized kids

It's worse in Europe.

Gay Norwegian filmmaker faces three years in prison after she said male-to-female transgender women cannot be lesbians