The breathtaking number of mergers and joint ventures among agribusiness firms has left independent American farmers facing the power of an increasingly concentrated buying sector. The origin of farmers' concern with such economic concentration dates back to protests against meatpackers and railroads in the late nineteenth century. Jon Lauck examines the dimensions of this problem in the American Midwest in the decades following World War II. He analyzes the nature of competition within meat-packing and grain markets. In addition, he addresses concerns about corporate entry into production agriculture and the potential displacement of a production system defined by independent family farms. Lauck also considers the ability of farmers to organize in order to counter the market power of large-scale agribusiness buyers. He explores the use of farmer cooperatives and other mechanisms which may increase the bargaining power of farmers. The book offers the first serious historical examination of the National Farmers Organization, which fully embraced the bargaining power cause in the postwar period. Lauck finds that independent farmers' attempts at organization have been more successful than previously recognized, but he also shows that their successes have been undermined by the growing concentration and power of agri-business firms, justifying a new approach to antitrust law in agricultural markets.

“This is the most important, dynamic book on the cancers of monopoly by giant corporations written in our generation.”—from the foreword by Ralph Nader American monopolies dominate, control, and consume most of the energy of our entire economic system; they function the same as cancer does in a body, and, like cancer, they weaken our systems while threatening to crash the entire body economic. American monopolies have also seized massive political power and use it to maintain their obscene profits and CEO salaries while crushing small competitors. But Thom Hartmann, America's #1 progressive radio host, shows we've broken the control of behemoths like these before, and we can do it again. Hartmann takes us from the birth of America as a revolt against monopoly (remember the Boston Tea Party?), to the largely successful efforts of both Presidents Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt and other like-minded leaders to restrain corporations' monopolistic urges, to the massive changes in the rules of business starting during the “Reagan Revolution” that have brought us to the cancer stage of capitalism. He shows the damage monopolies have done to so many industries: agriculture, healthcare, the media, and more. Individuals have taken a hit as well: the average American family pays a $5,000 a year “monopoly tax” in the form of higher prices for everything from pharmaceuticals to airfare to household goods and food. But Hartmann also describes commonsense, historically rooted measures we can take—such as revitalizing antitrust regulation, taxing great wealth, and getting money out of politics—to pry control of our country from the tentacles of the monopolists.

A historian and professor of finance traces the struggle between the federal government and expanding big business, showing that mega-mergers are a natural progression of capitalism. 35 illustrations.

Excerpt from Surplus: The Riddle of American Agriculture On any public issue, the economist's viewpoint is, of course, only one of many. On the issue of the food surplus, his viewpoint is urgently sought. Even among agricultural economists, however, views on the problem differ, and these several views are almost useless unless the layman knows them. The layman needs supporting reasons for the views he seeks to consider. Our role is to interpret. We have tried to arrange the interpretation to help the reader focus more sharply on the many facets of the food surplus problem. You may not be an economist, but you may have your own ideas on how the farm program should be handled. We seek to help you spell out these ideas and to look at other ideas held no less firmly by other people. American farmers have worked themselves out of their markets. They have taken advantage of new technologiesand buoyant food prices. The result is more wheat, corn, cotton and other farm goods than they can sell and give away. The balance of grain and. Cotton, in particular, is bought and stored by the Federal Government. Helped by tax revenue, the Government has been guaranteeing prices of cotton, wheat and other so-called basic commodities. You might say: Fine. The farmer has to contend with the weather. And he typically lacks monopoly powers over prices. Why shouldn't he be able to expect fair prices for his products? About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.