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Comment by Clubber | Hacker News Reader

Why does the US government allow so many M&A that are obviously bad for workers, managers and the market?

Mostly because In the 1980's the mergers guidelines at the FTC were dramatically narrowed explicitly to reduce antitrust enforcement and allow consolidation. It basically kicked off the wave of Corporate Raiders like Carl Icahn that dominated the 80s financial world (Gordon Gecko was based of this model of individual). Since then we've seen consistent, steady consolidation of almost every industry.

Matt Stoller writes about this frequently, and does an incredible job highlighting everywhere it's happening and what the downstream consequences are. I'm surprised he's not more popular on HN.

Article on what I described above: https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/the-secret-plot-to-unleas...

One of the most unambiguously good things Biden did during his term is appoint the actual most aggressive antitrust individual in the modern political environment to be head of the FTC, and a similar profile in Jonathan Kanter to the DOJ.

because they are alowed to invest in the market they are supposed to regulate.

why do you thin icahn at the time trashed online ad companies he had stake in? sinking that money on number 3-5 whan you own much more return on consolidatig 1 and 2?

Stock Price Go Up.

401k Go Up.

Voters Happy.

Is it really? Because for my 401k I mostly favor long term sustainable growth. Likewise as a consumer I prefer having a good product at a fair price. So I am not convinced that these short term squeezes are that popular with voters.

Voters don't even understand this is happening, honestly.

Voters aren't likely to care until their retirement amount stops growing and suddenly their projections/plans go out the window. Then they'll suddenly start caring whether they understand the reasons why or not.

Add a 4th one to the list.

If they solved the problem people would question their budget.

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