Tag: competitive markets

Senator Warren’s Speech on Monopoly

Mike Callicrate

Yesterday, straight off her high-profile campaign appearance Monday with Hillary Clinton, Sen. Elizabeth Warren gave a keynote address about industry consolidation in the American economy at a conference at the Capitol put on by New America’s Open Markets program. Though the speech has so far gotten only a modicum of attention—the press being more interested in litigating Donald Trump’s Pocahontas taunts—it has the potential to change the course of the presidential contest. Her speech begins at minute 56:45 Read More …

Populism With a Brain : Ten old/new ideas to give power back to the people.

Mike Callicrate

by Barry C. Lynn and Phillip Longman published in the Washington Monthly The National Review recently described Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump as “two populist peas in a pod.” This was not a compliment. Across the political spectrum, people stick the “populist” label on politicians they see as exploiting the worst resentments and envies of some tribe or another. The segregationist George Wallace, by this reckoning, was a populist. So, too, Jean-Marie Le Pen. Yet there is a Read More …

The New Meat Monopoly: The Humane Society’s New Alliance with Family Farmers

Mike Callicrate

A generation ago, the business of raising animals for food in America looked much like it had at the Founding – family farms, open and competitive markets, high standards, and a self sustaining national economy. Today, vast corporations rule almost every corner of the animal agriculture landscape, and these giants are increasingly controlled from foreign capitals. Some economists argue in favor of this new order of things, mainly claiming it is more “efficient.” But there’s also growing evidence Read More …

Finite

Mike Callicrate

by Richard Oswald Futures traders say “Rain makes grain” but it takes a whole lot more than rain to build the heads, pods and cobs of everything we grow. Growing a crop is much the same as building a factory. Both require energy and materiel. Factories, any factory, will wear out if not kept up. It all requires maintenance. In order to pay that cost farms and ranches need to earn a fair return on investment and labor. Read More …