Monopolies and Oligopolies concentrate wealth among a few and may violate antitrust laws making the personal economy, among many, poor.
Monopolies in American history are large companies that controlled an industry or a sector, giving them the ability to control the prices of the goods and services they provided. Many monopolies were considered good monopolies, as they bring efficiency to some markets without taking advantage of consumers.
Examples of oligopolies can be found across major industries like oil and gas, airlines, mass media, automobiles, and telecom. Some of the most notable oligopolies in the U.S. are in film and television production, recorded music, wireless carriers, and airlines. Since the 1980s, it has become more common for industries to be dominated by two or three firms. Merger agreements between major players have resulted in industry consolidation.
When one company sets a price, others will respond in fashion to keep their customers buying. For example, if an airline cuts ticket prices, other players typically follow suit. But, because the level of competition is still relatively low compared to a free market with many players, prices are usually higher in an oligopoly than they would be in perfect competition.
The existence of oligopolies does not imply that coordination or collusion is going on. Government policy can discourage or encourage oligopolistic behavior, and firms in mixed economies often seek government blessing for ways to limit competition.
Investigation shows scale of big food corporations’ market dominance and political power
Illustrations by Julia Louise Pereira
A handful of powerful companies control the majority market share of almost 80% of dozens of grocery items bought regularly by ordinary Americans, new analysis reveals.
Despite supermarket shelves and fridges brimming with different brands, a few powerful transnational companies dominate every link of the food supply chain: from seeds and fertilizers to slaughterhouses and supermarkets to cereals and beers.
The size, power, and profits of these mega companies have expanded thanks to political lobbying and weak regulation which enabled a wave of unchecked mergers and acquisitions. This matters because the size and influence of these mega-companies enables them to largely dictate what America’s 2 million farmers grow and how much they are paid, as well as what consumers eat and how much our groceries cost.
It also means those who harvest, pack, and sell us our food have the least power: at least half of the 10 lowest-paid jobs are in the food industry. Farms and meat processing plants are among the most dangerous and exploitative workplaces in the country.
Overall, only 15 cents of every dollar we spend in the supermarket goes to farmers. The rest goes to processing and marketing our food.
The Guardian and Food and Water Watch investigation into 61 popular grocery items reveals that the top companies control an average of 64% of sales.
“It’s a system designed to funnel money into the hands of corporate shareholders and executives while exploiting farmers and workers and deceiving consumers about choice, abundance and efficiency,” said Amanda Starbuck, policy analyst at Food & Water Watch.
The consolidation runs deep: four firms or fewer controlled at least 50% of the market for 79% of the groceries. For almost a third of shopping items, the top firms controlled at least 75% of the market share.
For instance, PepsiCo controls 88% of the dip market, as it owns five of the most popular brands including Tostitos, Lay’s and Fritos. Ninety-three per cent of the sodas we drink are owned by just three companies. The same goes for 73% of the breakfast cereals we eat – despite the shelves stacked with different boxes.
A legal monopoly refers to a company that is operating as a monopoly under a government mandate. A legal monopoly offers a specific product or service at a regulated price. It can either be independently run and government-regulated, or both government-run and government-regulated.
Today, government-granted monopolies may be found in public utility services such as public roads, mail, water supply, and electric power, as well as certain specialized and highly regulated fields such as education and gambling.
GOVERNMENT
LEGAL MONOPOLIES
USPS – The United States Postal Service enjoys a legal monopoly in the delivery of letters. Under the Private Express Statutes, private letter carriers are subject to fines and/or imprisonment.
NATURAL-MONOPOLY
Railroads are considered a natural monopoly. Because of the extremely high start-up costs SUCH AS The very high costs of laying track and building a network, as well as the costs of buying or leasing the trains, would prohibit, or deter, the entry of a competitor. It is not profitable to start a railway if there is already a railway line serving the same route.
- AgingStats.gov. …This site provides key aging data indicators.
- Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. …Under the authority of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, this site provides data, research, and policy information relating to their programs and services.
- Assistive Technology Solutions. …Operated through the National Institute of Disability Research and Rehabilitation, this site provides information to facilitate modification or construction of their own assistive technology devices.
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. …This site provides Medicare and Medicaid information.
- Corporation for National & Community Service. …This is the primary site for senior volunteer programs such as Foster Grandparents, Senior Corps, Retired Senior Volunteer Programs, and other national/international volunteer groups.
- Council of State Governments. ..This is the national organization that represents the various administrative offices within state government with regional sub-sites (West Virginia is within the southern regional area).
- FedStats. This site provides a full range of data and information produced by more than 100 federal agencies.
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- Independent Living Research Utilization
This site serves as the clearinghouse and information on disabilities, ADA, health care support, and independent living. - Institute of Medicine of the National Academies
Operating under the auspices of the National Academy of Science, this site provides information and advice concerning health and science policy to governments, the corporate sector, the health professions, and the public. - Library of Congress
This site serves as the primary Internet access point to track U.S. congressional activities, legislation, and congressional representatives. - Medicare.gov
Targeted to consumers, this site provides information about the Medicare program including benefits, handouts, nursing home comparisons, etc. - National Center for Complementary and Integrative Medicine
Working through the National Institute of Health, the NCCIM explores complementary and alternative healing practices in the context of rigorous science and disseminates authoritative information. - National Council on Disability
An independent federal agency, NCD promotes policies and programs that assure equal opportunity for all individuals with disabilities and empower them to achieve economic self-sufficiency, independent living, and inclusion into society. - National Institute on Aging
Operating in partnership with the National Institutes of Health, this site provides medical and research information regarding older people. - National Institutes of Health
One of the world’s foremost medical research centers, NIH serves as the focal point for research in the U.S. NIH serves as a host for 27 specialty fields and libraries. - National Institute of Mental Health
Operating through the National Institute of Health, this site provides medical research information regarding people suffering from mental health problems. - Nursing Home Compare
Provides detailed information about the past performance of every Medicare and Medicaid-certified nursing home in the country. - Publications.USA.gov
Formerly known as Federal Citizen Information Center, this site serves as the primary access point for the general public to access resources, literature, and information regarding all federal government public information programs. - Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Under the authority of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the site provides information, research, and materials about publicly financed mental health services. - U.S. Administration on Aging
AoA serves as the federal lead agency representing the interests and needs of older people. AoA has responsibility for administering Older Americans Act funds targeted to seniors in greatest economic and social need. - U.S. Census Bureau
The primary site to access population, housing, and income data for the United States and the world. The Census Bureau also conducts studies, research, and reports relating to population trends. - U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The CDC is the lead federal agency for protecting citizens’ health and safety. CDC efforts include disease prevention, environmental health, and health promotion activities. - U.S. Congressional Budget Office
The CBO provides data and financial reports requested by congressional or executive officers of the U.S. government. - U.S. Department of Agriculture
Serving as the lead agency for assisting people raising produce and livestock, the USDA provides food to people in need, manages the nation’s forests, assures food safety, and attempts to improve the quality of living in rural communities. - U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
Coordinating over 300 programs, HHS offers direct care to U.S. citizens needing public support to meet their health and social care needs. - U.S. Department of Justice
In addition to the Department’s criminal divisions, this office provides information to the public about laws pertaining to disability issues, domestic violence, etc. - U.S. Department of Labor
The DoL is responsible for protecting workers’ wages, health and safety, pension rights, job training, unemployment insurance, and workers’ compensation. The DoL is the lead agency for managing the OAA’s senior citizen training and employment program. - U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
The Department of Veterans Affairs site serves as a worldwide resource that provides information on VA programs, benefits, veterans facilities, and other supportive activities. - U.S. Government Accountability Office
This office conducts studies and research for congressional members pertaining to the procedural practices of various branches of the federal government. - U.S. President
The primary site for accessing the United States President via the White House. - U.S. Social Security Administration
The Social Security Administration is the lead agency for collecting and distributing retirement payments, provides support to survivors, and assists participants unable to work. - USA.gov
Targeted to consumers, this site provides information on income and health benefits, health and nutrition, consumer protection, and a directory to virtually every federal agency. - World Institute on Disability
The WID is a nonprofit public policy center promoting the independence of people with disabilities with a focus on affordable accommodation, personal assistance programs, adaptive technology, and flexible work scheduling.
- Independent Living Research Utilization
LARGE CORPORATIONS
HISTORICALLY
The government has allowed Luxottica to create a monopoly in the Glasses market. It is because this brand and the other brands associated with it are committed to safety. They aim at manufacturing products that protect eyes from ultraviolet radiations of the sun which are very harmful. Luxottica could be considered a monopoly because intellectual property is its most important asset. The company flexes design patents on all competitors to keep its designs selling for high markups.
Alibaba is a tech giant in Hong Kong and New York. In August of 2021, China fined the company $2.8 billion dollars for violating anti-trust laws. They were abusing market dominance and preventing its merchants from using other online e-commerce platforms.
De Beers is a diamond supplier. In 1888, Cecil Rhodes, a British [London] businessman and mining enthusiast, founded De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited. He purchased as many diamond mine claims as possible, creating the company’s first monopoly, over South African mines. One of the fields he purchased was owned by a pair of brothers called de Beer and in 1880 he bought the rights to his arch-rival Barney Barnato and created the De Beers Mining Company. This monopoly was the start of their major monopoly over the diamond market.
De Beers successfully influenced just about all of the world’s rough suppliers to sell production through the De Beers channel, gaining control of global supply. This gave De Beers the power to influence diamond supply and thus diamond prices.
De Beers created its distribution channel, called the Diamond Trading Co., or the DTC. This allowed only approved buyers or ‘sightholders’ to purchase in the non-negotiable DTC sales. They controlled pricing by holding onto rough during a weak market or flooding the market during increased demand.
The Russian and Australian companies were major factors in ending the De Beers monopoly and still to this day are huge competitors for the company. Realizing their loss, De Beers decided to focus less on the control of the market, and more on their brand and retail stores. This ended their monopoly status in the diamond market, going from an 80% stake to closer to 35%.
Carnegie Steel. A significant example of a vertical monopoly was Carnegie Steel. This company was considered a vertical monopoly because it owned every step of its supply chain, from raw material production to distribution. Also, the company was a monopoly because it had the power to control the overall supply of steel in the economy.
Andrew Carnegie was born to a poor Scottish family, he and his parents immigrated to the U.S. when he was 13. He built his fortune by investing in the steel industry and became the owner of Carnegie Steel Company, which by 1889 was the largest steel company in the world. The steel industry is considered an oligopoly market structure because, unlike perfect completion, it does not have many sellers.
- Standard Oil: 1911. The best place to start this gallery is with a monopoly the United States government successfully broke up. …
The best place to start this gallery is with a monopoly the United States government successfully broke up. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil was the dominant force in the global oil market. Through horizontal integration in the refining industry—that is, the purchasing and opening of more oil drills, transport networks, and oil refiners—and, eventually, vertical integration (acquisition of fuel pumping companies, individual gas stations, and petroleum distribution networks), Standard Oil controlled every part of the oil business. This allowed the company to use aggressive pricing to push out the competition. Standard Oil in 1911 was broken up into 34 companies. These companies would recombine; today, these companies go by the names of ExxonMobil, Chevron, Amoco, and BP.
- AT&T: 1984. ..
From 1899 to 1977, the American telephone industry consisted solely of the American Bell Telephone Company, which—using Alexander Graham Bell’s patents for the telephone—established the first exchanges and telephone interchanges. Using a franchise model, local and regional exchanges were set up under the Bell model—collectively known as the Bell System. In 1899, American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T) took over American Bell Telephone Company. In 1913, the federal government tried to break up AT&T. It escaped the attempt on the promise that it would divest from Western Union and allow interconnection to its long-distance network. In 1949, the government tried again, this time limiting AT&T to 85% of the national telephone network. Finally, the 1984 attempt broke AT&T up into US West, Ameritech, NYNEX, BellSouth, and others, while AT&T retained control of its long-distance business. AT&T, Verizon (the result of the merging of NYNEX, GTE, and Bell Atlantic), and CenturyLink would collectively absorb most of the spun-off companies.
- Microsoft: 2001. ..
.The Microsoft antitrust case is a weird episode in legal history in the sense that, although the government won the antitrust case, Microsoft stayed intact. At the center of the case was Microsoft’s practice of packaging its Internet Explorer as a not-uninstallable feature of its Windows operating system. While this did not prevent the installation of other internet browsers, such as Netscape, it forced users to consider IE and to manually change PC settings to avoid automatically using the browser. Additionally, original equipment manufacturers were forced to sign restrictive agreements that prevented the installation of other internet browsers. The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found that Microsoft violated antitrust laws. However, the Clinton Administration that prosecuted the case was out of office with the incoming Bush Administration less willing to break up Microsoft. The US Department of Justice dropped the case and accepted a settlement where Microsoft would share its IE application programming interface, making it easier for software designers to use and integrate IE, but not change the fact that IE (now, Edge) cannot be uninstalled.
- American Tobacco: 1911. …
American Tobacco came to dominate the tobacco world by acquiring more than 250 brands and growers. Among the brands American Tobacco took over included Lucky Strike, with the company producing 80% of all tobacco products in the United States prior to its breakup, including 90% of all cigarettes in 1890. The American Tobacco decision came down the same day as the Standard Oil decision, with the company, ordered dissolved and the assets broken up. The spun-off companies would become R. J. Reynolds, Liggett & Myers, and Lorillard. While none of these are currently the largest tobacco manufacturer globally or nationally (Altria, which is the holding company for Philip Morris, is the current industry leader), the constituent companies still yield a significant influence in the industry.
- Northern Securities: 1904. …
In 1904, a bidding war took place for control of the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad. The CB&Q controlled key lines in the Midwest, including a connection between the Twin Cities and Chicago. This line was essential for allowing Minneapolis flour access to the market. As such, the CB&Q was considered to be highly valuable. Using funding from J.P. Morgan, James Hill entered into a buying spree against Union Pacific’s Edward Harriman, threatening a potential crash of the New York Stock Exchange. Along with Morgan’s Northern Pacific Railroad, Hill would combine the three railroads into one holding company called Northern Securities. As Northern Securities was the largest company at the time and controlled railroad traffic in the West, Theodore Roosevelt pursued antitrust litigation. Northern Securities dissolved, but the three railroads would permanently merge in 1969.
- Swift & Co.: 1905. ...
One of the most important lawsuits regarding food safety in the United States is Swift & Co. v. United States. The case established the “stream of commerce” argument that allows Congress to create laws to regulate monopolies and interstate commerce. The government argued that Swift, a major beef-packing firm, coordinated with other leading meatpackers to fix prices. The cartel would blacklist competitors and suppliers that refused to cooperate. To stop regulations, the meatpackers merged into one big company, the National Packing Company, to conduct coordinating activities internally. The federal decision broke up the National Packing Company and led to the 1906 passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act.
- Adobe, Apple, Google, Intel, Intuit, and Pixar: 2010. …
As seen with the Swift & Co. case, coordination between individual companies can trigger an antitrust case. In 2011, Silicon Valley companies Adobe, Apple, Google, Intel, Intuit, Lucasfilm, and Pixar—the last two are now parts of Disney—were ordered to stop acting as a cartel to control “no cold call” agreements.” The original complaint assumed that the defending companies were working together to stop one company from “poaching” another companies’ employees, which could be a problem given that software developers and engineers are in short supply. Cold calling is contacting a potential employee directly who has not previously indicated an interest in the advertised position. The challenged “no cold calls” agreements were made between the companies in order to ensure no cold calling took place. It was ruled that these agreements are anti-competitive. A settlement ended the practice without compensating the plaintiffs for any harm; it would take a separate civil lawsuit for damages to be paid.
- Kodak: 1921.
While some antitrust lawsuits are the response to direct efforts to corner the market—as with American Tobacco—or collusion, some are because of the wild success of products. During the heyday of film photography, Kodak film, photographic paper, and cameras defined the industry. Its Instamatic cameras made it possible to shoot pictures without the need of third-party development, and its roll film made it possible to load and unload film into a camera in open light. At one point, Kodak controlled 96% of the American film market. In 1921, the federal government argued that Kodak’s policy of buying competitors and forcing retailers to sign exclusivity agreements is deceptive. The courts agreed, ordering Kodak to stop the practice and to stop selling “white label” or “private label” films, or films made by Kodak but sold under a different brand. In the 1930s, Kodak came out with Kodachrome, the world’s first color film. The technique for processing it was different from that of black-and-white film. Kodak maximized this advantage by requiring customers to have the film processed at a Kodak processor. A 1954 decree forced Kodak to divorce Kodacolor film processing from the film itself, forcing the company to license the processing technique to third parties. This opened the film market to competitors like Fuji and Agfa.
United States v. Alcoa is another interesting case in the sense that it took an act of Congress to get it settled. It also helped to define the “per se” rule in antitrust litigation. Alcoa, in the early part of the 20th century, was producing 90% of the aluminum that was first forged by the company (“virgin” aluminum). This was because Alcoa was able to establish public-private partnerships early on to get access to cheap hydroelectricity, as aluminum fabrication is energy intensive. Alcoa argued that, despite the 90% fabrication rate, it did not have a monopoly as it controlled considerably less of the reforged aluminum and aluminum product fabrication markets. In 1942, the U.S. Department of Justice’s case was dismissed. Following an appeal, the U.S. Supreme Court found that, after disqualifying several justices for having links to Alcoa, there were not enough court members to hold a quorum. A special act of Congress allowed the case to be assigned to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit which held that the market affected need not include the whole aluminum market, but just the “virgin” aluminum sector. Alcoa, however, was not broken up or otherwise penalized because, by this time, new aluminum companies like Reynolds had entered the market.
2024 Forbes
The 10 Richest People In The World
| Rank | Name | Networth | Age |
country / Territory
|
Source | Industry |
|
1 |
Elon Musk |
$344.7 B
|
53 |
United States
|
Tesla, SpaceX | Automotive |
|
2 |
Jeff Bezos |
$235.3 B
|
60 |
United States
|
Amazon | Technology |
| 3 | 
Larry Ellison |
$230.9 B
|
80 |
United States
|
Oracle | Technology |
|
4 |
Mark Zuckerberg |
$211.4 B
|
40 |
United States
|
Technology | |
| 5 | 
Bernard Arnault & family |
$164.2 B
|
75 |
France
|
LVMH | Fashion & Retail |
| 6 |  Warren Buffet |
$146.6 B
|
94 |
United States
|
Berkshire Hathaway | Finance & Investment |
| 7 |  Larry Page |
$144.2 B
|
51 |
United States
|
Technology | |
| 8 |  Sergey Brin |
$137.9 B
|
51 |
United States
|
Technology | |
| 9 |  Amancio Ortega |
$130.4 B
|
88 |
Spain
|
Zara | Fashion & Retail |
| 10 |  Steve Ballmer |
$129.1 B
|
68 |
United States
|
Microsoft | Technology |
|
|
Reference: Investopedia
