In this edition of Smart Talk, Tom Rossman speaks with Mike O’Mara, a respected academic and Trustee at the Center for the Study of Economics, about monopolies. Mr. O’Mara identifies monopolies as a primary driver of many economic challenges, acting as an invisible force that not only raises consumer costs (an estimated $5,000 per household annually) and concentrates wealth but also discourages innovation, limits job choices, and destabilizes supply chains.
He acknowledges that traditional antitrust can limit mergers and price-fixing, but questions how much of this would be necessary if land monopoly and government favoritism were addressed first.