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Krugman Interview

Do mergers occur in the same way today as they did then?

Paul Krugman
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I think, these days it's a lot less clear-cut. I mean, some of them are. The trusts were very straightforward. We are out to establish monopoly power. And some of the mergers that are happening now are probably about that, though a hundred years ago, people would admit that frankly and nowadays, you'll never hear it. They'll never commit it to paper or email. Many of them seem though to be more diffuse, they are looking for synergy, which isn't always in the eye of the beholder. They're looking for strategic advantage, which is in the eye of the beholder. That also makes it very difficult to know where the rules are. It's bad to have a merger that deprives people of the opportunity to vote with their feet. It's good to have a merger that promotes synergy, whatever that might be. I think we are mentally very well equipped to handle nineteenth century trusts. And the problem is the twenty-first century trusts are a little subtler than that.

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