Amazon Is Not a Monopoly

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/10/amazon-is-not-a-monopoly.html

Franklin Foer has an interesting new essay at New Republic arguing that Amazon is a monopoly trampling the public good and necessitating a vigorous public response, à la Ma Bell or U.S. Steel before it. There’s just one problem with his argument: Amazon is not a monopoly.

Foer starts off with a compelling insight: that monopolies act differently in the digital age. They do not corner a market and then start raising prices, to the detriment of the consumer. (Nobody expects that Google will start charging for searches, for instance.) Rather, they corner a market and put a vice on their suppliers.

“In its pursuit of bigness, Amazon has left a trail of destruction – competitors undercut, suppliers squeezed – some of it necessary, and some of it highly worrisome,” Foer writes. “In its confrontation with the publisher Hachette, it has entered a phase of heightened aggression.”..............................................................

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/10/amazon-is-not-a-monopoly.html