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Top 10 Company Market Cap Ranking History (1998-2018) [Invisible Hand vs Justice Dept/Anti-Trust]
YouTube ^ | September 15, 2018 | WaWamuStats

Posted on 06/01/2019 6:33:11 PM PDT by DoodleBob

This video shows the Top 10 companies by market capitalization worldwide from 1998 to 2018. It includes American companies such as, Apple, Exxon Mobil, Microsoft, Walmart, General Electric, Amazon, as well as companies from other countries, such as Tencent, BP, Alibaba, Royal Dutch Shell, etc.

(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Society
KEYWORDS: antitrust; invisiblehand; tech
Coming out of today's story that the Justice Dept is considering an antitrust probe of Google, and the accompanying spirited debate about whether or not govt intervention is 'right,' I found this video of the top firms by market value over time to be insightful. In short, nobody stays on top forever.

If you can't access the video, this picture is a nice summary of how the Invisible Hand may be more effective than trusting the same type of people who work at the Department of Motor Vehicles, to get it right in breaking up big liberal tech:


1 posted on 06/01/2019 6:33:11 PM PDT by DoodleBob
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To: DoodleBob
The question isn't simply one of laissez-faire free market capitalism vs. dumb government intervention, but whether Google (and other big tech companies) have used monopoly power anti-competitively.

It's pretty clear they have.

So the next question is whether their abuse is egregious enough to justify intervention. Not a clear-cut decision.

2 posted on 06/01/2019 6:43:38 PM PDT by FredZarguna ("And what Rough Beast, its hour come round at last, slouches toward Fifth Avenue to be born.")
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To: FredZarguna

Can you name 1 time gov anti trust policy was beneficial?


3 posted on 06/01/2019 6:57:49 PM PDT by genghis
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To: DoodleBob

Communism has left the building


4 posted on 06/01/2019 6:58:31 PM PDT by bigbob (Trust Trump. Trust the Plan.)
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To: DoodleBob

This is old. Microsoft is back on top and they were hit by DOJ in the past.


5 posted on 06/01/2019 7:04:19 PM PDT by for-q-clinton (This article needs a fact checked)
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To: DoodleBob

Pretty clear movement of the tech giants, financial companies and pharmaceuticals into the top ten— all of these are quasi monopolies in their fields.


6 posted on 06/01/2019 7:05:48 PM PDT by pierrem15 ("Massacrez-les, car le seigneur connait les siens")
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To: DoodleBob

I don’t think that chart tells the full story. A lot of those companies move up the list just through mergers and a acquisitions — not because other companies decline.


7 posted on 06/01/2019 7:10:38 PM PDT by Alberta's Child ("Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave." -- Frederick Douglass)
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To: Alberta's Child

True, but that’s kind of a distinction without a difference if you’re just looking at who’s on top. It would be interesting to separate organic growth from growth through M&A, because it’s a lot tougher to grow organically as fast as by just acquiring someone. But that’s what a lot of these tech companies have done and why their growth and dominance is so impressive.

For example, Apple has acquired over 100 companies yet virtually none are recognizable names, nor did they contribute much to the bottom line. But they each had unique and useful technology that Apple was able to integrate into it’s platforms and leverage. In contrast, GE has bought and sold large businesses for many years (think NBC Universal or RCA) and look where it’s gotten them.


8 posted on 06/01/2019 7:36:16 PM PDT by bigbob (Trust Trump. Trust the Plan.)
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To: genghis

Ma Bell?


9 posted on 06/01/2019 7:39:29 PM PDT by MV=PY (The Magic Question: Who's paying for it?)
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To: genghis
"Can you name 1 time gov anti trust policy was beneficial?"

I am not certain if it was an anti-trust action, but when they broke AT&T apart, phone rates went down (up until the break-up long distance calls were 25 cents a minute in 1970 money), service went up, and innovation went off the charts.

10 posted on 06/01/2019 7:56:07 PM PDT by fini
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To: fini

I remember when you had to put a deposit down to get a phone that you rented and long distance calls were costly. When you moved, it took an eternity to get your deposit back. Now, my wife and I pay $70 for two phones (that we own) with unlimited long distance, text and data.


11 posted on 06/01/2019 8:25:14 PM PDT by Ben Hecks
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To: fini

Ok good point but there arenot many and a lot of damage had been done by the enforcers


12 posted on 06/01/2019 11:06:25 PM PDT by genghis
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To: genghis
I'm not arguing this should be undertaken lightly.

But there are lots of examples of beneficial antitrust actions going back to Standard Oil. AT&T breakup and the consent decree against IBM are two more examples; both of those lowered costs to consumers and led to greater innovation in the affected industries.

Not all monopolies are illegal. We actually have some areas where they're needed.

But you should not be fooled into believing that large corporations are beneficial to free market capitalism; they aren't. Their CEO's are typically fascists--I won't say "crony capitalists" because there is no such thing--who do everything they can to destroy competition and force costs up for their small competitors, who are the real engines of capitalist economies.

13 posted on 06/01/2019 11:47:15 PM PDT by FredZarguna ("And what Rough Beast, its hour come round at last, slouches toward Fifth Avenue to be born.")
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