What is the red line that American companies are most worried about hitting? That's definitely antitrust law. More than thirty years ago, when Intel almost monopolized the chip market, Intel's executives were worried about triggering an antitrust investigation, and finally decided to license the relevant patents to AMD, thus escaping the disaster by supporting a rival.
Even in the 21st century, almost no American Internet company can be regarded as a "monopoly". Even if it is really close to monopolizing the market, it still has to imitate Intel and support a competitor in the same field. .
Why are American companies so worried about antitrust law investigations? Because the U.S. antitrust laws either do not take action, but as long as an investigation is initiated, the fate of the company being split up is basically not far away. No American company dares to test the red line of the antitrust laws.
How does the U.S. government have the power to break up trust giants? Next, let’s talk about the struggle between the U.S. government and trust companies.
1. The growth of trust giants
The world in the 19th century belonged to Europe, but when it entered the 20th century, this was the century that belonged to the United States. After the Civil War and the Westward Expansion, the United States entered a period of rapid capital development. In just a few decades, the United States overtook Europe as a whole and became the largest capitalist country in the world.
The development of industry and capital has made the United States rapidly wealthy. However, it is not ordinary American workers or the broad middle class who eat the biggest pie of the U.S. economic development dividends, but a small group of people occupying the top level of the United States.
The economic dividends of the rapid development of the United States have not benefited ordinary people, but on the contrary, the rising prices have spread to every class of society.
Take the Standard Oil Company, the world's first monopoly group and even the first monopoly group in human history, as an example. Standard Oil controlled more than 80% of the oil development and transportation in the United States. The head of the Standard Oil Group at the time could proudly say that seven of the eight oil lamps sold in the United States came from Standard Oil.
Standard Oil Company, which basically monopolized the entire upstream and downstream oil industry chain, was still not satisfied. It continued to develop its power in the manufacturing and financial industries in the form of squeezes and mergers. This was the world's first trust. The strength of giants.
Trust companies did greatly promote the development and progress of the industry in the early days, but when they reach a monopoly, they will greatly hinder the development of the United States. When trust companies not only become a roadblock to national development, but also arouse the dissatisfaction of the American people, the trust companies at this time will not be far away from the fate of being dismantled.
2. The birth of the Antitrust Act
After more than a hundred years of development, the United States finally ushered in the first crisis of capitalism. At that time, the United States divided the free market economy into two types. The first was a decentralized and multifaceted free competition market. Due to various factors such as small market size, low entry barriers, and difficulty in monopolizing, it fully accepted the free regulation of the market. Due to the diversification of products, consumers have enough choices, such as the current social software market in the United States.
The second type is the most dangerous market economy. Since a certain company has an exclusive monopoly on market sales, consumers have almost no other choices, and monopolistic companies can often obtain profits without making any progress. Huge profits. At that time, the United States was facing the most dangerous monopolistic market economy. Petroleum had Standard Oil, automobiles had Ford, and the financial industry had Morgan Alliance, which almost blocked access to the entire upper class of the United States.
As the bottom and middle classes become increasingly dissatisfied and monopoly tycoons gradually reveal their greedy fangs, the U.S. government finally introduced the world's first antitrust bill. In 1890, the U.S. Congress approved the Schaeffelman Antitrust Act, which prohibited monopoly agreements or market monopolization, and any exclusive trading, price discrimination and other illegal market competition would also be prohibited. Not allowed.
But in the United States at the end of the 19th century, monopolies still occupied a strong position, and even the president was not willing to easily touch the bad luck of trust giants, so this seemingly beautiful "Scheffelman Rebellion" The Trust Act has been in place for a long time, but has been put on hold and is of no use.
3. The Progressive Movement and the Panic of Trusts
The U.S. government at the time had no hope of breaking up the trust giants. They did not involve the American people with trust companies. It’s time to pray. If you want to defeat the giants, you can only rely on the American people themselves.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the United States began a vigorous progressive movement. This social movement representing advanced ideas included opposition to the monopoly of trust companies, and it happened that the leader of the trust companies at that time was the standard. Oil became the first target of this progressive movement.
The first person to launch a public attack on Standard Oil was a female reporter from McClure's newspaper. This reporter's father, Ida Tarbell, devoted his life to the oil fields. Ada almost grew up in the oil fields during her childhood. However, with the squeeze of Standard Oil, Ada's father's oil company was forcibly merged, and her life's hard work was forcibly taken away by Standard Oil.
The female reporter used an 800-page investigative report in the newspaper to accuse Standard Oil of illegal monopoly practices. After the female reporter’s complaint, a large number of American people began to denounce Standard Oil’s monopoly practices.
If the trust giants could still ignore the objections of ordinary Americans, it was only after President Theodore Roosevelt came to power that these trust giants who were accustomed to making money began to feel nervous.
Theodore Roosevelt was a thorough anti-monopoly. During the presidential election, he promised voters that he would break up these long-term monopoly trusts after he came to power.
Theodore Roosevelt did indeed take responsibility for the voters. With the support of the Roosevelt administration, the Louis Federal Circuit initiated a trust lawsuit against Standard Oil. The court held that Standard Oil had seriously exceeded the standards of a trust giant. . Finally, in 1909, this trust company, which had monopolized more than 90% of the oil industry chain in the United States, was officially dissolved by a court decision. After many discussions, Standard Oil, which had monopolized the oil industry for many years, was split into thirty-four companies. Independent oil companies.
The U.S. federal government has also struck while the iron is hot and has once again promulgated the "Federal Trade Commission Act" and the "Clayton Antitrust Act." These two newly released bills are the "Shaferman Antitrust Act" 》, it once again adds the minimum standards for triggering monopoly companies, and completely gives up hope for those trust companies that have a fluke mentality.
With the precedent of the giant trust that monopolized the entire oil industry chain being broken up, many American companies have also begun to conduct self-examination. If the bottom line of the antitrust law is touched, they will find ways to break it up. Companies and other forms bow to the U.S. government. Even the Morgan Alliance, which monopolized most of the U.S. financial industry, was not immune. In the end, the Morgan family chose to compromise with antitrust laws and chose to split the Morgan consortium into Morgan Stanley and Morgan & Co.
In general, the U.S. government has successfully strangled the trust companies by the throat, and no trust companies dare to make trouble on the head of the U.S. government anymore. In order to further block the way for trust companies, the U.S. government successively introduced the Miller Tyding Act, the Wheeler Lee Act, and the Thaler-Keffel Act. Trust companies no longer have access to business in the United States. Soil for survival.
4. Modern antitrust law
The most recent antitrust bill launched in the United States should be against AT&T Communications Company. In the 1980s, AT&T almost monopolized the entire United States. In the communications market, it is even aggressive in imposing standards on competing companies. If other companies do not implement AT&T's standards, their equipment will not be able to connect to the public network.
In the end, this illegal behavior of seizing the market angered the U.S. government, and AT&T Communications Company triggered an antitrust investigation. Finally, in 1982, this giant that monopolized nearly the entire U.S. communications market could not escape being dismantled. fate.
However, it should be noted that the US government also has a "double standard" definition of antitrust law.
When trust companies like AT&T Communications Company and Standard Oil illegally monopolize the entire market, give the people almost no choice, and hinder social development, the only way to deal with them is antitrust. Iron Fist. But companies like Boeing that can form healthy competition with Europe's Airbus and promote the progress of related industries will even encourage it.
A merger like the one between Boeing and McDonnell Douglas should not only be blocked but also dismantled according to the standards of U.S. antitrust law. But what you might not expect is that in order to promote the development of related industries and enhance the competitiveness with European Airbus, the U.S. government promoted the merger of Boeing and McDonnell Douglas, laying the foundation for Boeing's monopoly.
From this perspective, even the United States has two sets of antitrust laws. If it can promote industry development and enhance the overall competitiveness of the United States, it will not only not prevent it but will secretly promote it. But trust companies like Standard Oil that want to make money lying down cannot escape the sanctions of antitrust laws. But no matter what, the United States should be the best in the world on the road to antitrust monopoly.