History of antitrust efforts in the U.S. and Europe essays

History of antitrust efforts in the U.S. and Europe essays The ways in which nations interact with the world have, arguably since the Industrial Revolution and even more so since the beginning of the jet age, depended upon their corporations. Globalization, first through rapid international physical transit and more recently through instant access, at least concerning intellectual property/goods and transactions surrounding that intellectual property as well as tangible properties shipped and received, is making two things possible, one after the other. The first is the inevitable knocking into each other of the old-world methods of commerce, and those of the new world: the U.S. notably, of course, but also Canada and the NAFTA trading partners, conceivably. The second is that "the forces of globalization may be eroding the elements that once made European corporations unique. Still, historically speaking, and especially when compared with their American counterparts, European companies exhibit enough common traits for us to speak of an old-continent model'." (Amatori, 1999) Naturally, this makes a coherent antitrust policy covering all parties a challenge. Historically, the European model has seen the state as a major player in the economy; as well, close relations between the banking and industrial sectors reinforced this view and the fact of it. (Amatori, 1999) In the U.S., historically, there has been reluctance to bring the state in as an active player in the nation's economic life, and the relations between banking and industrial sectors were anything but close. Indeed, they are often adversarial. Likewise, European and U.S. views of who should benefit from commercial life differ. Europe puts is emphasis on stakeholders, while in the U.S., the emphasis is on shareholders. This has led to the prevalent hostile takeover in the U.S., despite antitrust laws, something seen less often in Europe. (Amatori, 1999) ...