Inflation targeting - the latest fad among central bankers
- aims to curb inflationary expectations by implementing a consistent
and credible anti-inflationary as well as anti-deflationary policy
administered by a trusted and impartial institution, the central bank.
The Benefits of Oligopolies
By: Dr. Sam Vaknin
Also published by United Press International (UPI)
The Wall Street Journal has recently published an elegiac list:
"Twenty years ago, cable television was dominated by a patchwork of
thousands of tiny, family-operated companies. Today, a pending deal
would leave three companies in control of nearly two-thirds of the
market. In 1990, three big publishers of college textbooks accounted
for 35% of industry sales. Today they have 62% ... Five titans dominate
the (defense) industry, and one of them, Northrop Grumman ... made a
surprise (successful) $5.9 billion bid for (another) TRW ... In 1996,
when Congress deregulated telecommunications, there were eight Baby
Bells. Today there are four, and dozens of small rivals are dead. In
1999, more than 10 significant firms offered help-wanted Web sites.
Today, three firms dominate."
Mergers, business failures, deregulation, globalization, technology,
dwindling and more cautious venture capital, avaricious managers and
investors out to increase share prices through a spree of often
ill-thought acquisitions - all lead inexorably to the congealing of
industries into a few suppliers.
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