• In the 1990s, stock market was believed to be performing at levels never seen previously BUT the IPO market of the 1920s was remarkably similar to the 1990s as share of GDP and speed from incorporation to listing.
• Employees aren’t moving jobs as fast as thought: 80-90s average tenure was 3.5 years, rose to 4.5 years today
• One of the reason for Europe’s lag in internet adoption is the fact that in most countries, unlike the US, consumers are charged per minute of local calls
• Some industries become inexplicably more expensive in US than in Europe (telecom and airlines for example. In Europe, consumer pay $35/month for internet; in the US almost double.
• In 2017, Airlines in USA posted a profit of $22.40 per passenger vs $7.84 in Europe. IN 2010, the net profit was similar.

1. Competition has declined in most sectors in the US economy
2. The lack of competition is explained largely by policy choices, influenced by lobbying and campaign finance contributions. These efforts distort free markets, lead to barrier to entry and regulations to protect large incumbents, weaker antitrust enforcement, and weaker growth of SMEs
3. The consequence of a lack of competition are lower wages, lower investment, lower productivity, lower growth and more inequality

• US growth has been around 2% from 1950-2000. The 60s are a period of faster than average growth, but over the past 18 years, growth has been slower.
  • Decline of employment rate - 85% late 1990 to below 81% in 2015.
  • High school graduation and college completion rates rose from 70s to 90s but flat since 2000s
  • Businesses aren’t as good as they used to be at reducing the unit cost of production or at coming up with higher quality products
• Remarkable growth in productivity from 1870s to 1970s is unlikely to repeat itself. The benefits of the second Industrial Revolution, associated with electricity and the internal combustion engine, were iy6j4¨
• deep and wide. In his view, computers and communication technologies are simply less important.
• ‘Rent seeking’ = attempt by individuals to tilt public policy in a way that establishes or increases artificial advantages in their favour
• Concentrated special interests are likely to organise and fight to protect their rents, while diffuse majority interests are trumped. The essence of the problem is free-riding and the fact that free-riding incentives grow with the size of the group.
• An action taken by the government (deregulation and antitrust suit) leads to an increased competition, and all the indicators move in the same direction. We observe lower prices, lower profits, and lower concentration, at least initially.
• Competitive pressures force inefficient producers to exit, and the market share of efficient firms increases. In this case, therefore, competition leads to higher concentration.
• Walmart’s market share grew dramatically in the 1990s, from less than 5% to almost 60%. Walmart’s margin went down a little bit over the period, rom 6-7% to 4-5%.
• The growth of Walmart is an example of efficient concentration. its profit margins remains table or even decline, and most important, prices go down. Consumer benefit from Walmart’s expansion.
• Loss leader pricing = firm selling a product at a loss in order to attract customers and stimulate the sales of other, more profitable goods and services.
• Predatory pricing = firm sets low, unsustainable pricing in order to drive competitors out of business.
• The majority of industries have sees increases in the revenue share enjoyed by the 50 largest firms between 1997 and 2012.