The Cato Institute has a monthly online debate called Cato Unbound. This month the topic is “When Corporations Hate Markets.” In the back and forth of the debate, some of our policy wonk friends who work at Cato were inadvertently drawn into the debate. See the contributions to the discussion by Randal O’Toole, Jerry Taylor and Timothy Lee here.
When Corporations Hate Markets
This issue tackles a
grave misconception: the idea that corporations and markets are
synonymous, and that what?s good for the one is good for the other.Astute economists have noted that far too often, corporations act to restrict
the free operation of the market. Corporations that have become
successful in a free or quasi-free market don?t like to face
competition any more than any other entity, and their success gives
them the resources, unfortunately, to stifle would-be competitors. In
these cases, corporations and governments can often find themselves in
an unholy alliance against consumers, other firms, and liberty itself:
corporatism, in other words ? a system that seems to value corporations as an end in themselves.And after that ? what?s an advocate of the free market to do?
