Federal Antitrust Policy During the Kennedy-Johnson Years

by James R. Williamson

Overview

By 1968, 200 corporations held over 60 percent of the nation's manufacturing assets and total annual profits. This book is a comprehensive study of the enormous concentration of economic power resulting from the Third Great Merger Movement, during which over 9,400 firms disappeared through merger, increasing from 954 in 1961 to 2,442 in the peak year of 1968. This great merger wave took place during a period of prosperity marked by a rapidly expanding economy, easy money, and a bouyant stock market. The conglomerate firm was the most prominent feature of the Third Great Merger Movement.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313296413
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	06/30/1995
Series:	Contributions in American History , #16
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	1640L (what's this?)

About the Author

JAMES R. WILLIAMSON is a retired U.S. Army officer and retired Professor of History and Business, Gwynedd-Mercy College. Presently, he is Adjunct Professor of History and Political Science at the University of Scranton and Adjunct Professor of History and Business at Wilkes University. He coauthored Zebulon Butler: Hero of the Revolutionary Frontier (Greenwood Press, 1995).

Table of Contents

Tables and Figures
Preface
Introduction: A Brief History of Antitrust Policy to 1950
The Issue: Business Concentration in the 1950s and 1960s
The Response: The Executive
The Response: The Congress
The Response: The Supreme Court
Conclusions
Epilogue
Notes
Appendix: A: Merger Guidelines, U.S. Department of Justice
Appendix B: Report of the White House Task Force on Antitrust Policy
Appendix C: Report on the Task Force of Productivity and Competition
Appendix D: Directorships of Major U.S. Corporations Tightly Interlocked
Glossary
Selected Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Shows that during the 1960s the county's third and then largest frenzy of mergers went largely unchallenged by either the Kennedy and Johnson administrations or by the legislature. Argues that World War II and industrial growth since then had made big business acceptable to the public, and that the massive social programs and the Viet Nam War required business support and optimism. Only the US Supreme Court, needing neither public nor business support, consistently slapped down every actual or potential threat to competition and move toward further concentration that came within reach of its jurisdiction. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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