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Where is the "dominant market power" coming from? Asymmetry of information is what got you to the top. You know more than your competition, more on a productiv

Where is the "dominant market power" coming from? Asymmetry of information is what got you to the top. You know more than your competition, more on a productive process, on consumer behavior, on business partners, on leveraging financial avenues, on political "contributions", on questionable use of insider information, etc. And Information is what keeps you at the top: knowing who to "lobby" to create convenient regulation that hurts your competition the most, is the most effective way monopolies use to stay that way. Monopolies are not monopolies in the abstract, they have to fight everyday to keep being a monopoly and they do that by leveraging information asymmetry.

dcow 5y ago
It’s not simply asymmetry of information though. Monopolies often have an incredible amount of financial power that they deploy against people trying to enter their market. Or maybe a company is on top because of their execution. I really don’t think the entire phenomenon can be explained by information asymmetry.
- insert_coin 5y ago
  The financial power comes from somewhere. > Or maybe a company is on top because of their execution. I already explained that part.
compiler-guy 5y ago
The at&t monopoly came about via government power, and the only fighting it did was to keep the government enforcing and maintaining the monopoly.
- insert_coin 5y ago
  > The at&t monopoly came about via government power,... That is what I wrote, yes. AT&T knew who to "lobby". That is information asymmetry.
  - compiler-guy 5y ago
    You would have to establish that no one else knew who to lobby, which is far from clear. Also I know exactly who to lobby for certain things I need from the city, but that clearly isn’t enough, because my lobbying efforts have failed miserably.
    - insert_coin 5y ago
      The asymmetry is in more than one area, those where only examples, and they probably have an asymmetric advantage over you in all areas. That is why, even if you know who to lobby you can't get a meeting, but they meet everyday. You don't know who to bribe to get a meeting. And on and on.

dcow 5y ago

It’s not simply asymmetry of information though. Monopolies often have an incredible amount of financial power that they deploy against people trying to enter their market. Or maybe a company is on top because of their execution. I really don’t think the entire phenomenon can be explained by information asymmetry.

insert_coin 5y ago
The financial power comes from somewhere. > Or maybe a company is on top because of their execution. I already explained that part.

compiler-guy 5y ago

The at&t monopoly came about via government power, and the only fighting it did was to keep the government enforcing and maintaining the monopoly.

insert_coin 5y ago
> The at&t monopoly came about via government power,... That is what I wrote, yes. AT&T knew who to "lobby". That is information asymmetry.
- compiler-guy 5y ago
  You would have to establish that no one else knew who to lobby, which is far from clear. Also I know exactly who to lobby for certain things I need from the city, but that clearly isn’t enough, because my lobbying efforts have failed miserably.
  - insert_coin 5y ago
    The asymmetry is in more than one area, those where only examples, and they probably have an asymmetric advantage over you in all areas. That is why, even if you know who to lobby you can't get a meeting, but they meet everyday. You don't know who to bribe to get a meeting. And on and on.