Tag: Pioneer Press

The Problem of Monopoly

On By southwerkIn Capitalism

The Problem of Monopoly

You are probably aware that one of the airlines will no longer serve food on flights. This is an outgrowth of the concentration of airlines as their numbers diminish. If you don’t have to compete; you don’t have to provide services or make your pricing competitive. Every American who uses air travel will face increasing fees and dismal service because in a monopoly you don’t have to do a good job or provide a decent service. You have to pay them anyway.

James Pilant

This is Edward Lotterman writing in the Pioneer Press –

Increasing monopoly power can get you coming and going, especially at the airport. The decreased competition in air travel resulting from successive mergers among airlines has already increased air fares. Now a pending take-over of Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group by either Hertz or Avis promises to reduce competition once you are off the plane.

But these days, questions of monopoly power seem a dead issue in Congress and among the general public. Such apathy is true even in the face of growing concentration in banking and financial services, where just three banks now hold a third of all deposits and are making well over half of new mortgage loans. Teddy Roosevelt must be turning over in his grave.

Newspaper Columnists I Follow

On By southwerkIn business ethics

FThese are my current choices among newspaper columnists. There are going to be a lot of changes over time. It’s taking me a lot of reading to find authors who delve into ethics (which I believe includes reporting and explaining evil doing with a requisite level of outrage). Some that at first appear to be promising turn out to be less than level headed if read for a length of time. Each columnist, once discovered, is favorited to an intermediate category and only moved to my regular reading after a period of probation. I was writing one of my regular recommended authors when I pointed out that I seldom criticize and my writing tends to be very complimentary. So, I wanted him to know that I don’t like to hurt people’s feelings (there is little people are more sensitive about than their writing) and bad writing carries its own reward. If I find writing offensive, incompetent or crankish, it gets deleted from my favorites never to be seen again. I think that counts as criticism.

MY CHOICES
Mitchell Schnurman of the Fort Worth Star Telegram.
Loren Steffy of the Houston Chronicle (He has a Blog and a column.)
Jon Talton of the Seattle Times. His column is called, Sound Economy.
Keith Chrostowski of the Kansas City Star.
Jay Hancock of the Baltimore Sun. (He combines the occasional item related to ethics with consumer advocacy on consumer and sometimes very local issues, so he will only appear when I believe he is on point.)
Edward Lotterman writes for Twin Cities Pioneer Press.
David Moon writes for the Knoxville News.

Newspaper Columnists – Ethics Roundup 6-9-10

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Loren Steffy (Houston Chronicle) asks the rhetorical question: “Should BP be paying its shareholders a dividend?”

Ben Bernanke predict a sort of, kind of, maybe, might be, probable recovery. (I’m overjoyed.) Jon Talton feels the same way. Discussing Bernanke’s testimony before Congress, Talton writing for the Seattle Times laments the paralysis and stupidity of our political class. He points out the easily discernable budget busters and then points out there is no one willing to deal with them.

Jay Hancock of the Baltimore Sun argues that increasing taxes on manufacturing makes no sense in the light of the enormous losses of those jobs in the Baltimore area over the last years.

Edward Lotterman writing for Pioneer Press argues that even with a good number of bank closings, there are many choices left for those seeking banking services. I’m a little surprised he didn’t discuss the ramifications of his state of Minnesota losing six banks this year.