The Atomic and Subatomic and Galactic Structure of Things Today

Even the liberal New Republic (as the saying goes) has a kind word for corporate consolidation in the wake of the SBC buyout of AT&T. Although I'll confess, the closing paragraph's declaration that oligopolies "are the natural order of things in a growing number of sectors of both the U.S. and world economy" immediately brought to mind a certain Ned Beatty monologue.

Comments

[Jeff]

Please rise for our corporate anthem.
Now let's play some Rollerball.

[Thomas Paine's Goiter]

Ned Beatty twice in two days?

What in the hell is going out there?

[Franklin Harris]

This is your obligatory Deliverance reference.

Just to get it out of the way.

[Julian Sanchez]

Well, frankly, some of us here were getting a little jealous of the way Armstrong Williams was raking it in. So I guess I should admit it: Ned Beatty has paid us each $7.50 to plug him on the blog.

[Stevo Darkly]

This is only the beginning. It took a while for the genius of Friedrich Hayek to be recognized also.

I believe the coming decades will someday be known as "The Ned Beatty Century."

[Mo]

I think it's awesome that a spin-off is buying it's old parent. I await the day that LavaSoft purchases AOL.

[Shannon Love]

Whoa, wait a minute. I distinctly remember being told in the early 80's that deregulation and divestment of the baby bells would lead to AT&T taking over the world. Didn't that happen? I mean, people called AT&T's new spherical logo the "Deathstar?" How could they get bought by anybody? Aren't they a huge global spanning ultra-mega-corporation with no master save Mammon?

Next you'll be telling me oil isn't above $100 a barrel.

[Thomas Paine's Goiter]

There has been more talk of Ned Beatty on this blog over the last two days than I've heard in the last 7 years.

[Rhywun]

Grrr - my place of work has kindly decided that I am to be denied access to bugmenot.com! Hence, no New Republic for me. You'd think I should be working or something.

[SPD]

Personally, I like having less choices. The fewer and larger companies, the better.

[Henry]

Don't let Tim see you quoting Network--we'll have to hear how it is "dated" again.

Movies aren't dated--viewers are.

[dhex]

often while at the movies, no less!

[Czar]

I used to work for SBC.

The company purposefully slammed people off grandfathered plans and then forced them to come back to new, higher rates with fewer features. I saw it every day.

Makes me kind of glad to be in a Verizon area, not that I ever thought I'd say that.

[Kevin Carson]

Until the Clayton Act, deconcentration was the natural order of things. That piece of legislation, with its restraints on "unfair competition," effectively outlawed price wars and for the first time made the U.S. economy safe for oligopoly. (see Kolko's Triumph of Conservatism).

And that doesn't even touch on the earlier federal role in building railroads, enforcing patents and tariffs, etc., as a cartelizing factor.

Your "natural order of things" reminds me of one of those old carny chess-playing machines with a midget inside pulling the lever.

[NoStar]

Henry, not all viewers are dated. Some of us sit alone in our trenchcoats and dusters in the back of the theater.