Tribune. As the Covid-19 health crisis reminded us, a few very concentrated companies dominate global production. For two decades, this trend has been accentuated to the detriment of an efficient allocation of resources. Both productive capital and the associated investments, as well as the labor and the people who carry it out, are deprived of the gains from growth.
Economics teaches us that the stronger the competition, the more profits are controlled, and the greater the welfare of consumers. But, in reality, a company always has an interest in adopting an anti-competitive strategy aimed at establishing entry barriers in their markets against other companies in order to benefit from monopoly rents.
New weapons
Clearly, the evolution of large firms and their market powers does not serve the general interest but accentuates inequalities and slows down the establishment of more prosperous and more distributive growth regimes. The inability of the world’s major economies to manage globalization has served the economic boom of these powerful corporations to the detriment of what American economist Joseph Stiglitz calls the “True wealth of nations”, one that is based on innovation, creativity and productive interactions between people.
It is clear that large modern companies are clearly freeing themselves from traditional antitrust regulations, even if the European Commission is increasingly vigilant in terms of abuse of a dominant position, as evidenced by the ongoing investigation against algorithmic power. of Amazon and its infringements of competition.
Because it is true that the intellectual property devices, which allow the deployment of aggressive patent strategies (as evidenced by the pharmaceutical sector), and the possibilities of tax evasion – as abused by the Gafam (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft) -, offer very large companies new weapons to increase their economic power.
This is why it is important for competition authorities and States to broaden the spectrum of public action in terms of regulation in order to fight against the socially inefficient (because not redistributive) use of these excessive market powers. , and these immoderate movements of mergers and acquisitions.
A renewed capitalism
It is neither utopian nor ideological to think now, and before the opportunity escapes us and no longer presents itself, the foundations of a renewed capitalism, which would preserve it from itself and which would give meaning. singular history to the revival of post-Covid-19 economies on an international scale.
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