Ten years ago, the United States stood at the forefront of the Internet revolution. With some of the fastest speeds and lowest prices in the world for high-speed Internet access, the nation was poised to be the global leader in the new knowledge-based economy. Today that global competitive advantage has all but vanished because of a series of government decisions and resulting monopolies that have allowed dozens of countries, including Japan and South Korea, to pass us in both speed and price of broadband. This steady slide backward not only deprives consumers of vital services needed in a competitive employment and business market—it also threatens the economic future of the nation. This important book by leading telecommunications policy expert Susan Crawford explores why Americans are now paying much more but getting much less when it comes to high-speed Internet access. Using the 2011 merger between Comcast and NBC Universal as a lens, Crawford examines how we have created the biggest monopoly since the breakup of Standard Oil a century ago. In the clearest terms, this book explores how telecommunications monopolies have affected the daily lives of consumers and America's global economic standing.

In Defense of Monopoly offers an unconventional but empirically grounded argument in favor of market monopolies. Authors McKenzie and Lee claim that conventional, static models exaggerate the harm done by real-world monopolies, and they show why some degree of monopoly presence is necessary to maximize the improvement of human welfare over time. Inspired by Joseph Schumpeter's suggestion that market imperfections can drive an economy's long-term progress, In Defense of Monopoly defies conventional assumptions to show readers why an economic system's failure to efficiently allocate its resources is actually a necessary precondition for maximizing the system's long-term performance: the perfectly fluid, competitive economy idealized by most economists is decidedly inferior to one characterized by market entry and exit restrictions or costs. An economy is not a board game in which players compete for a limited number of properties, nor is it much like the kind of blackboard games that economists use to develop their monopoly models. As McKenzie and Lee demonstrate, the creation of goods and services in the real world requires not only competition but the prospect of gains beyond a normal competitive rate of return.

The most important book on antitrust ever written. It shows how antitrust suits adversely affect the consumer by encouraging a costly form of protection for inefficient and uncompetitive small businesses.

Essay on the capitalist economy of the USA - covers corporation structure and giant entrepreneurship, generation and absorption of surplus profit, consumption, investment, historical and political aspects of monopoly, defence policy, etc., and includes sociological aspects, the standard of living and intergroup relations. References.

First class postage rates have risen from six cents in 1971 to 25 cents in 1988. This rapid increase might be justifiable if service had improved commen-surately, but in fact postal service has steadily deteriorated. The Postal Service concedes that it takes ten percent longer to deliver a first class letter than it did in the 1960s, and one recent postmaster general admits that delivery may have been more reliable in the 1920s. In this volume, Adie reviews the failures of the U.S. Postal Service - an inability to innovate, soaring labor costs, huge deficits, chronic inefficiency, and declining service standards. He blames most of these problems on the postal service's monopoly status. Competition produces efficiency and innovation; monopoly breeds inefficiency, high costs and stagnation. He also examines the experiences of other countries and other industries that may be valuable in prescribing reform for the postal service. The breakup of AT&T provides lessons that may be applied to postal reform. The long-run effects of deregulation on the airline industry are also examined. Since the postal service has serious union problems, Adie looks at the air traffic controllers' strike and other evidence on pay and labor relations in government unions. Finally, Adie examines the experiences of Canada and Great Britain with privatization of government companies. He then offers a comprehensive - and controversial - reform plan for the U.S. Postal Service, with no further monopoly privileges or taxpayer subsidies. He argues that private companies should be free to compete with the Postal Service, and it, in turn, should be free to compete in all phases of the communications business. Without privatization and deregulation, the Postal Service is doomed to continuing inefficiency, rising costs, worsening labor relations, and an increasing loss of customers to more innovative and efficient service providers. Competition would give the Postal Service a chance to enter the 21st ce

Between 1989 and 1999 half the teachers in England and Wales quit their posts. By the late nineties more than six thousand teachers a year were retiring early on grounds of ill health. In recent years hardly a school in the country has not lost at least one teacher because of a 'nervous breakdown'. Breakdown looks at what is happening in teaching today. Why breakdowns have become so common, what it means to suffer a breakdown, and the consequences of this epidemic for schools and children. It suggests what teachers can do to help themselves, what schools should do to help their staff and the ways in which the local authorities can offer practical support.