THE URGE TO MERGE

Cowboy hat By Jim Hightower - Sun., 8/1/99

It gets little political or media attention, but in the 1990s, every year has set a new record for corporate mergers and takeovers. There was a trillion-and-a-half dollars worth of them last year, and '99 will be even bigger. The result is an incredible elimination of competition in industry after industry.

Look at oil. In the blink of an eye, Exxon took over Mobil, British Petroleum has grabbed Sohio, Amoco, and ARCO; and Royal Dutch Shell has absorbed Texaco and is now reaching for Chevron, which itself took over Gulf. That's 10 major oil companies that are suddenly only three. Thousands of jobs have been lost, independent gas stations have been squeezed out, and consumer choice eliminated.

And have you flown lately? There are essentially only six U.S. airlines now, and moves are afoot to shrink them to three: American–US Air, Delta– United, and Northwest– Continental, giving this trio 98% of the take-offs and landing spots in all of America's busiest airports.

This awesome massing of power is by far the biggest and most threatening development to America's workers, consumers, farmers, and small businesses. Yet not a political peep from either party. Just more platitudes about "economic prosperity." And they wonder why people aren't voting.