Rentier Capitalism
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Once again i need to bow to other's expertise in interpreting this evidence.
It seems again Marx has been proved right about the centralisation and concentration of capitalism.
From
http://unctad.org/en/pages/PublicationWebflyer.aspx?publicationid=1852
Quote:in almost half of all US industries in 2012 the four largest companies accounted for at least 25% of all industry revenue. In 14% of all industries, the four largest firms captured over 50% of all revenues.What’s more, the sectors in which there was the biggest increase in market concentration showed the biggest increases in profits. These were not the result of firms making themselves more efficient; instead, they exploited market power to keep prices higher than they otherwise would have been. ..
“Once institutional countervailing powers – such as those of nation states, civil society and labour organisations – have been weakened, corporate rentierism has flourished. More generally, this raises the possibility of a ‘Medici vicious circle’, where money is used to get political power and political power is used to make money.”
Quote:“Large firms use patent protection to raise barriers to entry in an industry and bolster their own market power. Thus, superstar firms benefitting from erecting initial technological barriers to entry can use this advantage to further expand their market power in other ways, for example through pricing strategies that make new entrants nonviable,”"…The upshot is a drift towards oligopoly – in which the market is dominated by a small number of firms – and in some cases monopoly. Rentier capitalism is rife on Wall Street, but it is not just the financial services sector that is affected…If revulsion at the concentration of wealth and the exploitation of market power becomes strong enough there is nothing to stop governments smashing monopolies and raising taxes. This, after all, is what happened last time, with the first Gilded Age… Like FDR, Donald Trump has appealed to those in America who think the system is rigged against them. Unlike FDR, he has so far shown not the slightest inclination to do anything to make the system less rigged. To do that, Trump would have to make the tax system more progressive, reduce the power of corporate lobbying, resist pressure for stronger intellectual property rights and stop the wealthy from salting their money away in tax havens. None of this is on his agenda, which explains why America is a country where competition is thwarted, excess profits are rife and the tech entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley are the new robber barons…"
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