Monopoly: A real life board game

-

     We all know and love the board game, Monopoly. But what exactly is a monopoly, and where do the themes of this household game stem from?

    A monopoly forms when one supplier or producer has control over an entire market. Within this market structure, they are the sole provider. Without competition, they are able to determine prices however they see fit. Currently in the U.S. there is significant antitrust legislation to prevent the formation of these so-called monopolies. However, the preventative measures against monopolies were not always present. During a period in American history, called the Gilded Age, our economy was at a capitalistic peak and trusts were at an all time high. When it comes to this time period, one of the most prominent names in business was none other than J.P. Morgan. He was one of the most powerful bankers of the era and started the financial services company that would later be called J.P. Morgan. He financed many railroad projects and saw an eminent need to harmonize the competing railroad lines. His original attempt was to simply discuss this with them and get them all to agree to have standard prices and work together. However, this deal collapsed soon after a week. The only way J.P. Morgan saw fit to mend the issue, was to buy up all the rail lines so that he could run them as his own. And with that decision, one of the biggest monopolies in our nation's history was formed. Once in control of the rail companies, he was able set every standard across every line. Not only did the trains run more efficiently, but Morgan raked in quite a large sum of money. 

    J.P. Morgan left such a lasting impact as this monopolizer, that the Monopoly Man on the box of the Monopoly game is actually based off of him. 

    Following the Gilded Age, the United States entered the Progressive Era, where "trust-busters" like Theodore Roosevelt broke up monopolies and set up legislation to prevent them from forming in the future. 

Rich Uncle Pennybags: Financial Tycoon J.P. Morgan - human stories- Page 33 of 34



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wealth Inequality in America

-
Image
      The biggest flaw in our capitalist economy is the fact that there is already a basis of inequality in our country. Theoretically, capitalism provides an equal opportunity for those who are willing to work for it. However, the playing field in American society is so far from level. The crookedness brought on by generations of systemic racism and discrimination has caused minorities to be put at a natural disadvantage. Race is not the only factor in wealth inequality, yet is the most potent, and in the most dire need of help. Ideas like affirmative action, in the sense of college admissions, have attempted to provide some equity to minorities. However, to get to the root of the problem, economic policies are the only way to diminish the economic gap.      Wealth inequality is not necessarily a racial issue. While it often targets minorities who are handed less opportunities, to fix the economic disparity, it must be looked at from a broader sc...
Read more

Pre-colonial African Economics: Examining Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart"

-
Image
New parents are often told that they need to give their children the freedom to make mistakes. It is said that a young human learns best by adapting to their own mistakes and the stimuli of their environment, not by the hand of an overprotective parent. Contemporary economies very closely parallel this concept. Innovation tends to come as a result of an openly operating free market – governed by the laws of supply and demand – and not a command economy that has been strangled by authority. Throughout the novel Things Fall Apart , the author, Chinua Achebe, is trying to get the point across that pre-colonial African civilizations have been handed a Western bias that squishes an entire continent into a single story; and so, through his literary work, he develops a refurbished image that allows the complexities of African culture to shine through. In specific, he examines the culture of a cluster of villages in 19th century Nigeria. Although it may not be the main focus of his writing, th...
Read more

The Fall of FTX

-
Image
      Within the last month,  Bahamas-based cryptocurrency exchange, FTX filed for bankruptcy along with the resignation of chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried . The quick demise of the company has shocked the crypto world and left many wondering about the legitimacy of other cryptocurrency exchange platforms.      A significant cause of this quick downfall was a competitor's, Binance , withdrawal from a deal to purchase FTX.  Previously, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao had announced that the cryptocurrency firm had reached a non-binding deal to buy FTX’s non-U.S. businesses for an undisclosed amount, allegedly rescuing the company from a liquidity crisis that Zhao foresaw. However, merely a day later Zhao pulled out from the deal and essentially announced that FTX was a lost cause. Following the suspect dismantling of this deal between FTX and Binance and the inevitable downfall of FTX, the US Department of Justice launched a full on probe against the ...
Read more