by Jack Lee
DETROIT – U.S. automakers Chrysler LLC and General Motors Corp are desperate for a merger. Their sales are down and the carmakers fear a long and protracted sales decline as the global economy sinks into the foreseeable future. The merger deals that would have caused alarm bells to sound within a half dozen federal watch dog agencies are now silenced by the need to expedite in order to survive, or so say those in favor of “cost cutting” mergers would have us believe.
Bank of America buys Merrill Lynch and Country Wide Financial, Wells Fargo buys up Wachovia, Washington Mutual is picked up for pennies on the dollar by Goldman Sachs and on and on it goes. Mergers, takeovers and buy outs are creating mega players and when the economy recovers what will we have? Titans that are virtual monopolies and that means competition from new start ups will be almost nil, competition in general will be almost nil…and the big boys will be able to simply divide up the consumer pie into thick slices. The former market forces that once led capitalism to doing it better, faster and cheaper will not be the big compelling force it once was. Could be that cooperation will replace competing and that could be a real loser for consumers.
When the economic dust has finally settled on the floor of Wall Street I think there is going to be two words youre going to hear a lot trust busting.