Monopolies are inextricably linked to jobs, inequality, and productivity, because abusive monopolies can maintain profitability while firing staff, outsourcing customer service, and underinvesting in their businesses. They are protected by their market power, whether sanctioned by patent law (acceptable) or regulators being forced by Congress to look the other way (less so). Monopolies relate to trade because many justify their existence on the basis that America needs large national champions to compete in the brutal world of free trade. Perhaps so, but this logic more or less guaranteed that
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