Comments on: Nevada’s antitrust deal sheds light on Elizabeth Warren’s big plan https://www.overlawyered.com/2019/12/nevadas-antitrust-deal-sheds-light-on-elizabeth-warrens-big-plan/ Chronicling the high cost of our legal system Tue, 17 Dec 2019 11:06:25 +0000 hourly 1 By: Talking Warren’s big antitrust plans | Overlawyered https://www.overlawyered.com/2019/12/nevadas-antitrust-deal-sheds-light-on-elizabeth-warrens-big-plan/comment-page-1/#comment-357120 Tue, 17 Dec 2019 11:06:25 +0000 https://www.overlawyered.com/?p=73792#comment-357120 […] like in practice.” I join Caleb Brown for a Cato podcast on themes outlined in this space last week. Related: Geoffrey Manne and Alec Stapp last March on Warren’s plans for tech and antitrust […]

]]> By: Hugo S. Cunningham https://www.overlawyered.com/2019/12/nevadas-antitrust-deal-sheds-light-on-elizabeth-warrens-big-plan/comment-page-1/#comment-357057 Wed, 11 Dec 2019 18:17:47 +0000 https://www.overlawyered.com/?p=73792#comment-357057 For a skeptical take on the T-Mobile/Sprint merger, see
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20191210/08140343542/as-trial-begins-evidence-shows-sprint-t-mobile-know-merger-will-raise-prices.shtml

TLDR:
The 4 (pre-merger) “competitors” of the US telecom industry do not really compete, being part of an oligopoly
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligopoly
In a functioning oligopoly, “competitors” keep a close eye on each other, avoiding any behavior that would set off a profit-killing price war. For US telecoms, the problem has been aggravated by regulatory capture of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Also, many local markets only have 1 or 2 “competitors.”
All these problems would be aggravated if we reduce the number of national “competitors” from 4 to 3.

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