>CVS is knocking out small drugstore owners.
Which could increase competition, not decrease it. The small drugstore owner can be a local monopoly, with limited selection and high prices; the chains compete with each other, have larger selections and lower prices.
I just don't buy it that there's a trend towards increasing monopolization. The auto sector in the US in the 1950s was dominated by the big three; now there are something like ten major players, and the big three's market share is down to 58%. Steel is no longer US Steel and Bethlehem; it comes from all over. There's no such thing as price leadership anymore. Oil prices are set on futures exchanges, not by the Texas RR Commission. Etc. Lenin and Hilferding based their arguments on German-style trusts; that's just not relevant anymore.
Doug