AntiTrust Laws
The United States has a free market. This is very beneficial to consumers because it enables them to have a variety of products to choose from and it allows them to buy them at competitive prices. If it were not for the antitrust laws that the government put into effect there would not be much of a market. There would only be big businesses that produced everything and they would set the price consumers would pay. Antitrust laws protect companies from one another so they compete for business and are not forced out of business by a larger company. It is because of these antitrust laws, such as the Sherman Act (1890), the Clayton Act (1914), and the Federal Trade Commission Act (1914), that Americans today are able to have a free market and businesses are able to compete.
“Open markets, it is believed, provide fertile ground for a healthy economy by encouraging mew investment, job creation, stable prices, and a reliable marketplace” (Monopolies and antitrust, 1999). Antitrust laws are able to regulate the businesses so that no company can be the sole producer of a product. The term antitrust comes from the nineteenth century when “the trusts single-handedly controlled the nation’s most important markets, crushing all competitors, dictating prices, and erratically supplying goods and services to consumers” (Monopolies and antitrust, 1999). In a time when the nation was moving from agriculture to industry base, the lack of legal rules paved the way for the trusts such as Standard Oil and J.P. Morgan. They fixed their prices to eliminate their competitors, and then when they were out of business, the big businesses would increase their prices back up. “Many Americans began denouncing the trusts as the enemy of civil society and free enterprise, the press described Stand Oil as a menacing octopus with tentacles stretching across the country, and political unrest exacerbated the need for government intervention” (Kleiner, 2011). “Consumers were powerless, as were
“Open markets, it is believed, provide fertile ground for a healthy economy by encouraging mew investment, job creation, stable prices, and a reliable marketplace” (Monopolies and antitrust, 1999). Antitrust laws are able to regulate the businesses so that no company can be the sole producer of a product. The term antitrust comes from the nineteenth century when “the trusts single-handedly controlled the nation’s most important markets, crushing all competitors, dictating prices, and erratically supplying goods and services to consumers” (Monopolies and antitrust, 1999). In a time when the nation was moving from agriculture to industry base, the lack of legal rules paved the way for the trusts such as Standard Oil and J.P. Morgan. They fixed their prices to eliminate their competitors, and then when they were out of business, the big businesses would increase their prices back up. “Many Americans began denouncing the trusts as the enemy of civil society and free enterprise, the press described Stand Oil as a menacing octopus with tentacles stretching across the country, and political unrest exacerbated the need for government intervention” (Kleiner, 2011). “Consumers were powerless, as were