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You present no evidence and talk about eggs... I was genuinely trying to see if someone would point me in the right direction for actual data about consolidatio

by vasco 3y ago

You present no evidence and talk about eggs... I was genuinely trying to see if someone would point me in the right direction for actual data about consolidation of large companies being more prevalent now than in the past - which outside of blackrock isn't super clear to me. I mean if you go just a few hundred years back I'm 100% sure consolidation was worse because lords and kings owned everything. It remains to be seen if it was better during the 1800s and 1900s but my searching skills aren't coming up with much.

octobus2021 3y ago
If detecting industry consolidation was easy, we would be able to easily prevent it and have the free market do its thing. Alas, this is not the case, as definitions of markets, market share, competitors, etc., can be pretty vague. As for the most recent spike in price of eggs a quick search showed https://farmaction.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Farm-Action-Letter-to-FTC-Chair-Lina-Khan.pdf https://farmaction.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Farm-Action... which yes, is prepared by the smaller competitors of the larger conglomerates, but it does present some factual information. Including very small decrease in egg production, high degree of industry consolidation, with one company controlling about 20% of the entire market (and the company saw 600% increase in profits). Here https://www.forbes.com/sites/daniellenierenberg/2023/01/27/cracking-open-the-issue-of-high-egg-prices/?sh=30a0b2b02c09 https://www.forbes.com/sites/daniellenierenberg/2023/01/27/c... you can see more analysis and other examples of industries that are even more consolidated, e.g., 4 companies control 70% of the pork producing market, other 4 companies control about 80% of beef producing market. Look at finance. Look at IT. Consolidation is everywhere. It is natural direction of free markets and, if left unchecked, causes massive disruptions of free market mechanisms.
danaris 3y ago
We're not talking about comparing to a few hundred years back. We're talking about comparing to the time since the Industrial Revolution—and especially most of the 20th century. I don't know offhand of any specific and scientific measures of consolidation, but it's painfully clear from observation that over the past 40 years, we have had a massive wave of consolidation in many sectors. Just as one example, I recently saw a chart of consolidation in the (book) publishing industry, where dozens of publishers consolidated into several, and then into the big 4 we have today. Similarly, there are a number of fairly widely-circulated charts of the few companies that own nearly all of the various food and household product brands in the US and in Europe. These are widely-known and well-documented phenomena, and it should be easy to find evidence if you go looking for it at all.

by vasco 3y ago

octobus2021 3y ago

If detecting industry consolidation was easy, we would be able to easily prevent it and have the free market do its thing. Alas, this is not the case, as definitions of markets, market share, competitors, etc., can be pretty vague. As for the most recent spike in price of eggs a quick search showed https://farmaction.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Farm-Action-Letter-to-FTC-Chair-Lina-Khan.pdf https://farmaction.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Farm-Action... which yes, is prepared by the smaller competitors of the larger conglomerates, but it does present some factual information. Including very small decrease in egg production, high degree of industry consolidation, with one company controlling about 20% of the entire market (and the company saw 600% increase in profits). Here https://www.forbes.com/sites/daniellenierenberg/2023/01/27/cracking-open-the-issue-of-high-egg-prices/?sh=30a0b2b02c09 https://www.forbes.com/sites/daniellenierenberg/2023/01/27/c... you can see more analysis and other examples of industries that are even more consolidated, e.g., 4 companies control 70% of the pork producing market, other 4 companies control about 80% of beef producing market. Look at finance. Look at IT. Consolidation is everywhere. It is natural direction of free markets and, if left unchecked, causes massive disruptions of free market mechanisms.

danaris 3y ago

We're not talking about comparing to a few hundred years back. We're talking about comparing to the time since the Industrial Revolution—and especially most of the 20th century. I don't know offhand of any specific and scientific measures of consolidation, but it's painfully clear from observation that over the past 40 years, we have had a massive wave of consolidation in many sectors. Just as one example, I recently saw a chart of consolidation in the (book) publishing industry, where dozens of publishers consolidated into several, and then into the big 4 we have today. Similarly, there are a number of fairly widely-circulated charts of the few companies that own nearly all of the various food and household product brands in the US and in Europe. These are widely-known and well-documented phenomena, and it should be easy to find evidence if you go looking for it at all.