Finally Justice Department Seeks To Block AT&T, T-Mobile Merger

**Smokinbiker** · 08-23-2011, 09:40 AM

yeah like that is going to happen

**stillheartherain** · 08-23-2011, 12:57 PM

Businessmen of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation enRAB in a conspiracy against the public and a contrivance to raise prices.

-Adam Smith

**Pidds** · 08-24-2011, 03:12 AM

That's sort of true.

**i love everybody!** · 08-24-2011, 09:41 PM

I know.

**Moiraes Fate** · 08-25-2011, 03:04 PM

Like that will EVER happen.

That statement assumes that we have something even close to a "free market" system in this day and age.

**rivera573344** · 09-10-2011, 02:38 AM

You are on to something there. Monopolies and oligopolies have ALWAYS shaken out to where the consumers have the best deal.

**Ceila M** · 09-10-2011, 07:03 AM

The Herfindahl index (also known as Herfindahl–Hirschman Index, or HHI) is a measure of the size of firms in relation to the industry and an indicator of the amount of competition among them. Named after economists Orris C. Herfindahl and Albert O. Hirschman, it is an economic concept widely applied in competition law, antitrust and also technology management.

It is defined as the sum of the squares of the market shares of the 50 largest firms (or summed over all the firms if there are fewer than 50) within the industry, where the market shares are expressed as fractions. The result is proportional to the average market share, weighted by market share. As such, it can range from 0 to 1.0, moving from a huge nuraber of very small firms to a single monopolistic producer. Increases in the Herfindahl index generally indicate a decrease in competition and an increase of market power, whereas decreases indicate the opposite.