Snap Fact #124
Post date: Mar 08, 2012 5:0:54 PM
Snap Fact #124
President Obama Enhanced Antitrust Penalties And Reforms To Curb Monopolistic Abuses!
Two of the basic foundation principles of America's founding fathers were, the belief in democracy, and the conviction that competition in the free market is a vital key to maintaining our democracy. Throughout our history and down to today, most citizens recognize and agree on the value of these tenets.
However, in the last decades big corporations have tended to dominate the market. Many of these companies have become at least de facto monopolies that have gobbled up smaller companies or forced them out of business. Monopolies are able to manipulate markets, set prices and service policies that are detrimental to their customers, and achieve an inordinate amount of power and influence.
Thus, in order to slow down the rush to a total monopolistic economy, and to protect consumers from its abuses, the government has traditionally issued a long series of antitrust laws over the years. By the time President Obama took office things were really out of hand. The previous administration had not prosecuted one single anti-trust case during its tenure. Therefore, many corporations such as AT&T, Microsoft, Shell, Pfizer, Intel, Wal-Mart, et al. today have broken the code and tend to dominate the economy to a larger extent than ever before.
Thus, on June 9, 2010, President Obama enhanced reforms and penalties against corporations that to dominate the market. He instructed his Justice Department to actively hear and adjudicate anti-trust complaints. "As antitrust enforcers, we cannot sit on the sidelines any longer, both in terms of enforcing the antitrust laws and contribution to sound competition policy as part of our nation's economic strategy," said Christine Varney, the President’s chief antitrust enforcer at the Department of Justice.