To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (553147 ) 3/4/2010 3:29:41 PM From: tejek Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 1573824 Ted, this whole article misses the point. Of course small businesses and entrepreneurs help grow the economy. Of course industrial consolidation is the anathema of growth. What that article fails to mention, however, is how hostile the business climate in America has become. There are lots of ways small businesses and entrepreneurs can compete against the big boys, if they're given a chance. But crushing business and environmental regulations often kill most of these dreams. I don't think that's true. Did you miss this point in the article:"The problem of weak job creation certainly can’t be due to increased business taxes and regulation, since both were slashed during the Bush years." The tax situation is the best in decades and yet we saw no job growth in this latest decade. There is a bit of a misunderstanding re. taxes. Yeah, businesses like lower taxes but if that were an absolute truth, ALA, LA, SC and MISS would be booming right now. They are not. In truth, businesses want more than just taxes and even will put up with high taxes as long as the overall environment is positive.Meanwhile, as big businesses start seeing a hostile climate, they look for survival and continued profitability via the old-fashioned way: by merging and banding together. Sure, they can use their weight to drown out smaller competitors, but that usually weeds out the copycats, not the innovators. They are banding together to grow their profits. The less competitors the higher the prices they can charge. Its not because they are worried about a hostile environment. IMO, businesses tend to retrench, not expand in a hostile environments.By the way, the author's anti-Intel rant is just an example of one-sidedness. The antitrust lawsuit in NY state is a complete political play by Andrew Cuomo, who is seeking to make a name for himself. Antitrust matters should be handled by the DOJ or FTC, not by a single state. Meanwhile, the EU led by Neelie Kroes (a.k.a. Neelie the Terrible) was way too heavy-handed in its decision and is an example of what happens when the same person acts as judge, jury, and executioner, and also denies Intel due process. In other words, that article is heavily biased toward bringing back the New Deal. Thus, it selectively states facts that only support that position. It should have been clear in the beginning when the author used such childish language like "nada, nil, zip." That's something I'd expect from an Internet post, not a well-reasoned essay. I am not saying that its the whole truth but there is something very much wrong when we go a whole decade without any job growth. And seriously, Ten, it wasn't because Bush wasn't friendly to industry. On the contrary, it was the best business environment in years.......its what Cramer and his cronies so badly miss.