From Robert Reich
Dow Chemical Co. and DuPont Co. just announced they’re merging -- the largest merger ever in the chemicals industry, creating a giant that (along with Monsanto) will dominate herbicides and genetically modified seeds, and (along with Koch industries) will dominate plastics and specialty chemicals. The result will be higher profits, higher pay for top executives (Dow CEO Andrew Liveris becomes executive chairman of the new company, and DuPont CEO Ed Breen becomes CEO, both pictured below), and more political power.
The merger also means higher prices for you for food and a variety of other products. Crop prices continue to drop, so the only way these giant companies can increase earnings is by increasing their market power to raise prices (Monsanto is also on the prowl to buy a big ag or chemical company). That means more of your paycheck will be going to them, directly or indirectly.
Similar upward distributions are occurring all over the economy – pharmaceuticals, finance, Internet service, health insurance. If antitrust laws were still enforced, such mergers wouldn’t be allowed. But big corporations now have enough political power to squelch antitrust. The upward distributions from the bottom 99 percent to the top are far greater than the downward redistributions, through taxes and transfers, from the top 1 percent to the bottom 99 percent. But the upward distributions are hidden inside the market. We must bring back antitrust, break up concentrations of economic power, and reclaim our democracy.
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This blog will focus on political images I have found all around the Internet, though I will intersperse some commentary and quotes that I find interesting.
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