In a Washington Post article on November 29, 2021 “FTC demands information from top companies, such as Amazon and Walmart, in sweeping supply chain probe,” AAI President Diana Moss explains that the root of supply chain disruptions is consolidation and concentration.
From the article:
The White House and some independent analysts have blamed a lack of competition throughout the supply chain for many of the current problems, which are fueling inflation and depressing the president’s public approval ratings. Biden this summer issued an executive order calling for regulators to crack down on consolidation in the ocean shipping and freight rail industries as part of a broader competition initiative.
“We’ve had an incredible amount of consolidation in the supply chain. … That’s why it’s been unable to withstand the kind of shock we’ve seen with the pandemic,” said Diana Moss, president of the American Antitrust Institute. “We are now learning the hard way what 40 years of unbridled consolidation and lax merger enforcement mean.”
