Saturday, February 21, 2009

Mergers and the Public Interest

Now that we've been told that some financial institutions and automobile companies are "too big to fail", leading to vast bailouts at public expense, it's clear that the public has a vested interest in deciding whether corporations should be allowed to attain such a size and pervasive impact. Like trees that grow to tower over a home, the survival of the home becomes increasingly threatened. It may be a fine arrangement until the day when economic winds send the tree crashing down.

It would be interesting to see if this potential impact was even considered when mergers were creating ever larger banks and insurance companies.

No comments: