when does doj act on monopoly ?

[elcheapo]

developing situation here.  a number of coops are joining a "marketing group".....kind of funky in the first place...you have

the coop, then you have a marketing group, with a total different name......you haul your grain to a cooperative elevator,

the scale ticket has the name of the coop on it, then when you do any business, or get a check you have to deal with the

marketing division...........

i don't like that.....

now, the last local cooperative is talking of joining........so i'll have to go to terminal elevator to do business with someone else

other than the "group"........

We are doing this to help you........that's what i'm told..........

oh, one small detail.....the group, is lower in price.......despite all of it's volume, unit train loading facilities (3), they

are consistantly lower than others.

didn't there used to be some sort of controls on situations like this ?

i think it's close to predatoriy action......they have done made made threats on the fuel division.....telling several stations

that they either sell out to them, or they will put automated pumps next to them and run them out of business.

that is what they, act like they are the good guys, but once they get in, that's it, and they stick it to you.

kind of makes me wonder the demeaner of the board.

[sw363535]

Never.....

Too many political financial debts owed by the administrative department of federal government to ever have the "large circular organs" to do anything that honorable.

And if it can't be done in the larger financial arena it ain't going to do anything on the small scale locally.

One entity that sells all the fertilizer in kansas is much easier to keep track of and pinch for campaign finances than three entities in every little former town.

That's the view from washington dc ---------- IMO

[Red Steele]

its just like the "single payor" nonsense in the health debate...the first

few times I heard that discussion, I ignored it as the thoughts of a few

village idiots...then it gained traction. Now you have people that don't

know anything about economics heralding it like it would save money,

and is such an obvious choice that anyone that doesn't "get it" is the 

idiot now.

Free markets are what have given the modern world choices, and 

good values. I admit that you can go too far with "free trade" and shoot

yourself in the foot by hosing the working people , but you should also

keep the mechanisms in place to insure a competitive market, and the

present coop model of mergers and predatory prices doesn't seem to

accomplish that.

What about the seed industry...will the Chinese ownership of Syngenta,

and the German(Bayer) ownership of Monsanto shake things up and 

lead to better bargains, or will there by more monopoly behaviour? The

big M bought up so many competitive companies, with never any policing

by the antitrust divisions that it is a bad joke. WOnder what will happen

down the road now.

[sw363535]

Red I look at it this way.

The coops are realizing that a large % of the ag production is passing them by.

They are being bypassed as the middleman in grain handling and sales.

And they are being bypassed as the imput supplier of choice for a large % of grain production.

Mergers in this industry are no different than in any other... They happen in bad times not in good.

No coop gets more successful by merging with a partner that is struggling. They just get bigger.   And if there weren't financial problems mergers would not be happening.

Coops are choosing to go with the trend to bigger and fewer....  question is will it work??  Or are they just on their way to an end of a business style...