Monopoly and Competition | Thomas J. DiLorenzo

[MrJamesBP]

The speaker is obviously very knowledgeable on the subject. I managed to learn a lot about the Austrian view on competition.That being said, I wish he did a little less quoting. I though it was a little excessive.

[swu880]

@MrJamesBP

uh in what way was it excessive??? Lorenzo is merely presenting an in depth analysis of competition, monopolies & the REAL history behind it. So aint it logical that one would buttress his position with direct quotes from the various people- especially of the past when tryin to debunk the misconceptions & falsehoods of the history?

[swu880]

@swu880

When u speak about total misconceptions & fallacies propagated through history as most economic fallacies are(ie 'the myth of natural monopoly), its most helpful to use direct quotes especially from the papers & people of the time.

Lorenzo does a fabulous job here in the span of an hour.

But sadly many people who are economically illiterate would require several months of studious reading & critical thinking in order to even understand this stuff

[MrJamesBP]

@swu880

It isn't a comment on his knowledge...it's a comment on his presentation. I find these types of lectures to be less enjoyable when the speaker is constantly quoting other people. No need to take it personal...It wasn't meant to be insulting. In fact, as I said, I found the talk to be very informative....as we say in Québec "on se calme le bacon" ("Let's relax the bacon"...roughly meaning "chill out")

[FCmagic01]

Love this stuff.

These guys could tear my Econ professors apart.

[Jaycephus01]

The socialist indoctrination textbook I had to use in 88 or so was all concerned about the hostile takeover merger fad, which it blamed for several 'harmful' trends. Big Beer was buying all of the smaller breweries, steel foundries were being bought & shut down, Safeway was destroying our food, & all this was evidence of the failure of capitalism. Now Anheiser has been bought out itself, yet we have MORE small brewers, unions killed Steel, it HAD to go elsewhere, & Safeway is toast.

[WOLF333999]

It took a few minutes for DiLorenzo to warm up, but then he got going. Another winner.

[OldCottage2]

Hm, Learned Hand wasn't a Supreme Court judge, only a very influential Court of Appeals judge.

[DarthByss]

This is what DiLorenzo is good at. He should stick with this and spare us from his poor scholarship on historical figures.

[Loserido]

Are you referring to the work on Lincoln or Hamilton? if Hamilton then I'm inclined to agree.

[LordVigeous666999]

I'm not sure what you mean by anti-trust competition

But this should answer it either way, competition is inherently anti-trust

[NietzscheIsBack]

I really appreciate the Austrian School on monetary issues and libertarianism. BUT, this anti-trust theory is really their weak point. They really sound like a 'cult' when they talk about anti-trust law.

[stealthswimmer]

Not really. Actually, Thomas DiLorenzo has another vid discussing how he himself had done research on the subject and showed the "monopolistic" companies in the past were punished even though the prices of goods from those industries were falling faster than the price level and the people that wanted anti-trust were people that wanted tariffs(and high prices brought by them) and small competitors that couldn't compete with lower prices.

:-)

[NietzscheIsBack]

I understand your point. My question to the Mises guys is this:

If you are ok with Cartels and monopolies, then why do you complain about the 'state' and the 'banks' so much.

The modern state is just a 'monopoly over a certain terrirory'. There is no difference between Microsofts monopoly of the desktop and the state monopoly of political power.

[taubstumm]

You didn't get it. In a free market there are no monopolies.

[NietzscheIsBack]

I agree. The problem is: in the real world there is been no such thing as a free market. It is a purely theoretical concept (which I appreciate) but I haven't seen it anywhere.

Reality seems to indicate that markets evolve into some variation of oligopoly but they don't spontaneously evolve towards 'free' or 'perfect' markets.

As to the state: I see the political parties as competitors in an 'idealogy' market. There also it has evolved into a cartel of Left-Right establishment.

[NietzscheIsBack]

As a result, plitical 'entrepreneurs-innovators' like Ron Paul are marginalized.

You see, humans are in the business of exploiting each other. Whether it is through a political cartel or business cartel it doesn't make a difference.

Like you, I also wish the world was libertarian.

[stealthswimmer]

people from the Mises Institute are NOT in favor of monopoly....

I don't know where you get that from. I guess you haven't really paid attention to their vids/audio or read articles on monopoly.

A single firm in an area is not a monopoly. A monopoly is a firm that has a government-granted charter/contract and the government FORBIDS competition by using force. By seeing this, you can see why many of them are against the state...it uses force and forbids competition.

[stealthswimmer]

(continued)

Furthermore, they're not against the banks...only the Fed, central banking. That's because, once again, it has a government-granted monopoly. Violence is used against you if you wish to offer people an alternative currency due to legal tender laws, and nobody else is in charge of money supply because the state prevents competition in money. Secondly, central banks have been tended to be the engine of inflation.

[NietzscheIsBack]

It is odd to see a 'monopoly' as a governement 'granted' phenomenon only.

A monopoly happens naturally in the market.

The FED didn't just come out of nowhere and get a monopoly from the governement. It was set up by powerfull banks which were already dominating the markets. It was the banks which set up the FED NOT the state. The Sate of course gave its blessings to the money machine.

[stealthswimmer]

No, it's not odd to see a monopoly as that because that is by definition, what a monopoly is. A monopoly is not a single firm, unless you look at it through the neo-classical view, in which case a natural monopoly still is not a normal monopoly because it still behaves as if there could be competition at any moment( because there can be once profits get high enough).

As for the Fed, yes it was granted by the state. Bankers wrote up the proposal....but it was given the go-ahead by Congress.

[Jaycephus01]

The Fed was not set up by the state? You fail history. Yeah, bankers came up with the idea, but it could only exist through a charter granted by Congress, & it can only be ended by Congress, not by, say, a universal boycott by US citizens. What's to boycott? Federal Reserve Notes? Wouldn't accomplish anything.

A monopoly CAN happen when a co. is really good, but how can it continue indefinitely? If they start raising prices too high, competition will begin to thrive again.

[Jaycephus01]

Exactly when did Microsoft have a monopoly, and when did it end? My first computer was an original Mac 128K. I went PC when Mac failed to provide what I could get on a PC using the Win OS. I've tried Mac OS X and Linux (Ubuntu) since then. Currently using Vista x64 Ultimate. It's great. But for a certain uses, I might recommend to a friend or family member that they use a Linux or Mac OS computer. It depends.

[enotdetcelfer]

Yea no kidding. I own a vista laptop, win 2000 for making music, and two linux boxes. It's funny and sad when the majority that don't know jack about computers complain that the guys selling the simple solution that comes with the computers are somehow being monopolistic...

[Xtro2005]

When you can even pander a FREE OS you know you should pack it in and find the nearest tall structure.

[rumco]

Some people may argue that Microsoft has a monopoly through IP. However, I too feel that Microsoft has no monopoly and people choose to buy their products voluntarily, I chose Linux.

[coturnix19]

@rumco so do I; in fact, piracy helps microsoft to sustain its monopolistic position through vendor lock-in. basically, they've gotta love it. Only on home pc market they are monopoly, notice how professional markets are much more diverse. And still, they seem to suck more and more every day.. it is like they are rotting from inside...

[NietzscheIsBack]

The banking system: the mises guys constantly use the word 'cartel' to designate the FED and the banking system.

The fact is this: any structure which is big and poweful enough to dominate a 'space' (ex. market) will inevitably exploit that space to its own advantage. It doesn't matter whether it is IBM, the State Bureacracy, A King or a Ruller.

[stealthswimmer]

The point is that when the state grants the monopoly, it uses force to forbid competition. That is a significant difference.

[enotdetcelfer]

There is a big difference. The supposed "monopolies" he is talking about arise from added value and economy. As soon as they deviate from that, they can be taken down as a course of natural market forces. The FEDs existance does not depend on the value it provides or it's success or failure. It is enforced at the point of a gun. IBM doesn't force you to buy it's products. The government does...

[ZamatoElite]

HEY, that's the guy who bashes Lincoln.

He is my hero.

[LordVigeous666999]

I think patents are just a way to preserve intellectual property

And they expire after like 20-30 years anyway, so even if a company buys up patents to hold them out of the market, they can only do it for so long

And they can't be inherited, so you don't have to pay the descendants of the Wheel for the privilege of driving a car

Overall patents are absolutely needed

[vorbeigehende]

up is down, black is white, smart is stupid, Paul Krugman is an economist

[sinitskyd]

and Rahm Emmanuel is a freedom-loving peacenik.

[vorbeigehende]

with his famous "never waste a good crisis" (to expand government even more)

[kotash2]

you forgot Krugman has a nobel prize!

[vorbeigehende]

@kotash2

you forgot Obama has a nobel prize too

[coturnix19]

@vorbeigehende now that's the obamination ! al gore at least was given the prize for doing something (chasing manbearpig), but obama...

[coltrane1966]

Thanks for uploading this video. I really enjoy these lectures, their entertaining and you learn a lot.

[RakeRocter]

One more, attibuted (probably falsely) to George W. Bush:

"The problem with the French is that they don't have a word for 'entrepreneur'".

[DavidAKZ]

It's entrepreneur

[RakeRocter]

Right. That's the joke - or part of it anyway.

[vorbeigehende]

"probably falsely"

I would not misunderestimate him.

[RakeRocter]

While we're telling monopoly jokes. I heard this one on Jay Leno, and it's one of my favorites:

"Did you hear they're going to raise the price of postage stamps again? Yeah, they plan to use the profits to buy more "THIS WINDOW CLOSED" signs for the post offices.

[PanzerDivisionBOM]

There's this joke about antitrust that I find hilarious:

"Three businessmen are sitting in jail, and they get to discussing their crimes.

'I charged lower prices than anyone else, so they accused me of cutthroat competition, and threw me in here!'

'I charged higher prices than the norm, and they locked me up for price-gouging!'

'Really? Because I charged the same price as everyone else, and they found me guilty of collusion and cartelization...'"

[nonantianarchist]

I always think it's funny when the government accuses private entities of cartelization, given that the only successful cartels arise from government intervention.

[TheAtheistRising]

Add to that the fact that the government IS a monopoly.

[vorbeigehende]

It's actually a VERY old soviet joke.

Three workers in jail.

The first one came too early to work, accused of spying. The second one came too late, accused of sabotage. The third one came always on time, accused of possesing a foreign watch

[thisisbunk]

is that a joke?

[vorbeigehende]

i don't know. but the story about a man who was 25 years in jail for dropping the

portrait of Comrade Stalin at some demonstration seems to be true.

[thisisbunk]

lol, that would bite. in all honesty i was joking when i asked if it was a joke. (i dont what word describes my humor? dry? wry?)