Thursday, August 31, 2006
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Concentration and The Monopsonist Walmart |
Here's Bruce McQuain at QandO addressing the Walmart-is-a-monopsonist narrative, which of course arises from Barry Lynn's 2005 Harper's article.
One paragraph from Lynn's article has been nagging me for some time:
It is now twenty-five years since the Reagan Administration eviscerated America's century-long tradition of antitrust enforcement. For a generation, big firms have enjoyed almost complete license to use brute economic force to grow only bigger. And so today we find ourselves in a world dominated by immense global oligopolies that every day further limit the flexibility of our economy and our personal freedom within it. There are still many instances of intense competition - just ask General Motors. But since the great opening of global markets in the early 1990s, the tendency within most of the systems we rely on for manufactured goods, processed commodities, and basic services has been toward ever more extreme consolidation. Consider raw materials: three firms control almost 75 percent of the global market in iron ore. Consider manufacturing services: Owens Illinois has roiled up roughly half the global capacity to supply glass containers. We see extreme consolidation in heavy equipment; General Electric builds 60 percent of large gas turbines as well as 60 percent of large wind turbines. In processed materials; Corning produces 60 percent of the glass for flat-screen televisions. Even in sneakers; Nike and Adidas split a 60-percent share of the global market. Consolidation reigns in banking, meatpacking, oil refining, and grains. It holds even in eyeglasses, a field in which the Italian firm Luxottica has captured control over five of the six national outlets in the U.S. market.
The examples are compelling, but is the overall conclusion factually correct? Is the US economy more concentrated now than it was before the Reagan administration?
A quick JSTOR search using the keyword "concentration" yields only one peer-reviewed article addressing this question: Lawrence J. White: "Trends in Aggregate Concentration in the United States", The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 16, No. 4. (Autumn, 2002), pp. 137-160
Here are some data abstracted from the article (White's sources here are Forbes, IRS, and BLS). I've averaged White's Table 8 (p. 156) for all 1980-2000 half-decades to show average share of all U.S. private sector profits earned by the largest Forbes-listed 500 companies, as well as their share of total employment:
Well isn't this special -- the largest companies' profits as a percent of total, not to mention their employment share, has decreased since the 1980's. Lest anyone worry we've lost too much information by computing five year averages, here's the actual record showing how for "a generation, big firms have enjoyed almost complete license to use brute economic force to grow only bigger":
The teensy little red arrow at the very end of the series points to the scandalous growth of large companies' profit share toward the very end of that scandalously pro-business Clinton administration.
Lynn's article is old news revitalized by the current Walmart/Monopsony story, but I'm not sure anyone has pointed out a serious weakness in Lynn's argument (aside from the wrong facts). Lynn's economic history is so weak he sees no distinction between New Deal-style economic regulation and the much earlier legal tradition addressing economic concentration.
The New Deal's regulatory apparatus attempted to control (and in some cases to actually increase) economic concentration. The deregulation movement of the 1980's basically addressed regulatory-protected agglomerations of power found in air transportation, freight, and teleccommunications.
That aggregate data show declining economic concentration since the 1980's is unsurprising. Cherry-picked counter examples are little more than interesting exceptions to the overall rule.
UPDATE: Thanks to the reader who error-checked a name for me! |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 1:35 PM |
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
|
Illinois... |
| where all the kids are above average. |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 11:39 AM |
Monday, August 14, 2006
|
"Fight fiercely Harvard, fight fight fight, demonstrate to them our skill"...(Tom Lehrer) |
| More on that unlikeliest of phenomena -- a championship cycling team at MIT. |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 6:30 PM |
|
Hoax and false alarm... |
I've received numerous responses to my friend's urgent email. This is all something of an urban legend, or a hoax, or an annoyance, or something easily checked out at snopes.com.
Okay, I'm sorry, I posted it without checking further. So sue me. Wait -- NO -- I didn't mean that, just joking you know... |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 5:07 PM |
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Friday, August 11, 2006
|
Message from a friend... |
PASS ON TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW --
I received a telephone call last evening from an individual identifying himself as an AT&T Service technician who was conducting a test on the telephone lines. He stated that to complete the test I should touch nine( 9 ), zero( 0 ), the pound sign ( # ), and then hang up. Luckily, I was suspicious and refused. Upon contacting the telephone company, I was informed that by pushing 90#, you give the requesting individual full access to your telephone line, which enables them to place long distance calls billed to your home phone number.
I was further informed that this scam has been originating from many local jails/prisons.
DO NOT press 90# for ANYONE!
The GTE Security Department requested that I share this information with EVERYONE I KNOW. After checking with Verizon they said it was true, so do not dial 90# for anyone!!!!!
PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW. |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 3:57 AM |
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
|
Will those with the data send us some results? |
One of MIT's brightest undergraduates sends us a challenge:
1. Via Instapundit and National Review we learn
2. Michael Moore thinks Lieberman's defeat predicts electoral disaster for every elected official who supports the war, and, more important,
3. Michael Moore has an aol email address.
In light of these three points our correspondent says:
Now, my question is, as Michael Moore has an aol address as seen at the bottom of the letter (poor judgement to start with), can his searches be identified from AOL's recent massive leak of search queries? (emphasis and link added)
UPDATE: And by the way, for everyone with an upcoming event -- HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 12:49 PM |
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Monday, August 07, 2006
|
What do those initials stand for anyway? |
Not Broken Pipeline. Something else.
Other lesser-known facts to emerge today (links to follow):
1. Al Gore predicted it in the movie. He thinks it is caused by global warming. (really)
2. This has all happened before--many times in fact.
3. The strategic petroleum reserve is generated in part by crude shipments in lieu of royalty payments. |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 5:47 PM |
Sunday, August 06, 2006
|
Reuters' version of collegiality... |
First Reuters gets caught publishing a doctored news photo. Then Reuters pulls the doctored news photo.
Then Reuters responds to the issue:
A Reuters employee has been suspended after sending a death threat to an American blogger.
The message, sent from a Reuters internet account, read: "I look forward to the day when you pigs get your throats cut."
It was sent to Charles Johnson, owner of the Little Green Footballs (LGF) weblog, a popular site which often backs Israel and highlights jihadist terrorist activities.
In the threat, the Reuters staff member, who has not been named, left his email address as "zionistpig" at hotmail.com.
Reporting the message to his readers, Johnson wrote on his website: "This particular death threat is a bit different from the run of the mill hate mail we get around here, because an IP lookup on the sender reveals that he/she/it was using an account at none other than Reuters News."
Speaking to Ynetnews, Johnson said: "I was surprised to receive a threat from a Reuters IP, but only because it was so careless of this person to use a traceable work account to do it."
He added: "I think it's more than fair to say that Reuters has a big problem."
Via Memeorandum, more comment at Right Wing Nut House, A Blog For All, Power Line, The Muqata جÙ, The Strata-Sphere, Blue Crab Boulevard and Don Surber ; also see Riehl World View, Captain's Quarters, Blinq, Israellycool, Roger Ailes, Flopping Aces, Jihad Watch, Gateway Pundit, Samizdata.net, EU Referendum, NewsBusters.org, Ed Driscoll.com, Soccer Dad, A Blog For All, Ace of Spades HQ, RightWinged.com, WILLisms.com, Outside The Beltway, Judeoscope, Jay Currie, The Corner, Atlas Shrugs, IMAO, Barcepundit, Secular Blasphemy, Power Line, Macsmind, Daimnation!, Israel Matzav and Patterico's Pontifications.
UPDATE: Via Michelle Malkin, this trip down the memory lane of recently doctored news photos:
Demonizing Condi
USA Today removes doctored photo
Katherine Harris vs. the photo doctors
Time's photo distortionists
When pictures lie
Where is Bilal Hussein?
NYTimes staging the news |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 10:40 AM |
|
I don't think he's quite done it... |
A very confused Juan Cole tries to tie together (a) peak oil, (b) fungibility of petroleum resources, (c) China and India and the New World Economy, the war in Iraq and the Iran/Israel/Syria/Lebanon situation, (d) lots and lots and lots of other stuff.
Bringing these disparate ideas together into a coherent whole is challenging, to say the least. |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 6:33 AM |
Saturday, August 05, 2006
|
The director's cut... |
Final (?) update on the Qana narrarive:
Now the strategy becomes clear. Round the corner and on top of the rise formed by "Stretcher Alley" is the "fiercely competitive" media, coralled like sheep in a pen, waiting for the next photo-opportunity to be presented to them. And Hezbollah is about to lay on the performance of a lifetime, a human interest story starring "Green Helmet and "White Tee-shirt" in a bravura display of raw emotion.
First of all, here comes "White Tee-shirt" for a solo performance. But, while the snappers do their business, he hasn't quite got it. The stride is too purposeful. He looks soulful but his head hangs and there is no passion or drama in the pose. The rubble is bit too messy and amorphous and there is nothing to draw the eye to add contrast to the sole figure marching up the litter-strewn slope. As a picture, this simply doesn't hack it.
By now, "Green Helmet" has got in position for a dual shot, although from this angle you can only just see the crown of his helmet over "Tee-shirt's" left shoulder. Even then, the pose is magnificant - head thrown back in anguish, the corpse cluched to the bosom and a soulful expression all combine to give just the note that is needed. Many editors find this is just right and rush to print it.
Via Mememorandum, more at The Volokh Conspiracy, Ace of Spades HQ, Say Anything and Natalie Solent . |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 3:23 PM |
Friday, August 04, 2006
|
That only looks like the real deficit... |
USA Today wants you to start worrying about the real federal deficit -- you know, the deficit that we would see if only the federal government didn't keep two sets of books and were honest about what it really owes.
Well, yes, the picture looks bleak if we add in upcoming Social Security and Medicare obligations -- but if you're going to start fooling with the calculation methodology, shouldn't you add in thus-far-ignored offsetting assets to counterbalance the new liabilities you're now considering?
For example -- what's the royalty value of all the Alaska oil reserves now sheltered from development? What total royalties will be collected from offshore oil reserves we're only now considering developing?
And by the way -- what's the market value of approximately one-quarter of the USA landmass never privatized in the ninteenth century and therefore still owned by the federal government?
UPDATE: Via Memeorandum find additional opinion and discussion at: ParaPundit, Tapscott's Copy Desk, Thoughts of an Average Woman, Balloon Juice and Daily Pundit.
UPDATE II: And while we're on the subject, let's not forget Eisner's take. |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 5:06 AM |
Thursday, August 03, 2006
|
"In terms of structure and hierarchy, [Hezbollah] is...comparable to...the multidimensional American civil-rights movement of the 1960's..." |
There are many amazing quotable quotes in this Robert Pape essay, but Pape's key point appears to be the following:
What [Hezbollah] suicide attackers [share is] not a religious or political ideology but simply a commitment to resisting a foreign occupation. Nearly two decades of Israeli military presence did not root out Hezbollah. The only thing that has proven to end suicide attacks, in Lebanon and elsewhere, is withdrawal by the occupying force.
In other words: just give them land, they will stop attacking. If that fails, well, just give them more land.
And even more.
UPDATE: Does the NYT actually coordinate its statements with Hezbollah? A link to this story just appeared at Drudge.
Keep going...
UPDATE II: Just in case you dont' know the right answer yet, here it is. |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 8:37 AM |
|
Department of little known facts... |
Hamza Hendawi at MyWay writes:
The prospect of a longer war has raised tensions across the Mideast, where anti-Israeli and anti-American hostility is now sharp. Arab leaders have warned repeatedly in recent days that the fighting has hampered, or killed outright, any hope for a long-term Israeli peace deal. (emphasis added)
Dammit! Those stoopid Israelis! Peace was just within their grasp -- but they blew it by invading Lebanon! |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 6:35 AM |
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
|
Das Leben ahmt kunst nach... |
Can it be true?
Three weeks after taking power in January 1959, Castro named Raul his successor, telling supporters: "Behind me are others more radical than I."
This sounds so familiar. You can find an English translation here, but please be advised EconPundit accepts no responsibility for this page's accompanying soundtrack. |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 8:18 AM |
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