I N V I S I B L E C O N T R A C T S
George Mercier
FEDERAL LICENSING PROGRAMS
[Pages 480-481]
[Certain conventions have been used in converting INVISIBLE
CONTRACTS to an electronic medium. For an explanation of the
conventions used, please download the file INCONHLP.ZIP for
further illumination. Other background information as well is
contained in INCONHLP.ZIP. It is advisable to EXIT this file
right now and read the contents of INCONHLP.ZIP before proceeding
with your study of this file.]
By experiencing the direct benefits of Commercial enrichment
acquired through a Federal license program, such as being an SEC
registered stockbroker, or an ATF licensed manufacturer of
fireworks, which is an obvious pursuit of federally participated
profit or gain. Several federal monopolies were designed
specifically for the existing participants to experience
intensive Commercial enrichment in, as the net effect of a
regulatory jurisdiction is to discourage potential new market
entrants from competing with established corporate titans. In
any market there are only so many potential customers available,
and excluding new upstarts allows existing Grandfathers to have a
bigger slice of the pie they would not otherwise be experiencing.
For example, the creation of National Banks by the Congress,
through the Comptroller of the Currency, is one such monopoly
designed to enrich existing market participants, while shutting
out new banks and damaging the end consumer. In any one
demographic banking district, there is only so much business to
be had; cutting out new entrants keeps a bigger slice of the
banking pie for the owners. [634]
[634]============================================================
For example, in 1967, F.W. Pitts wanted to bring a new National
Bank into the Hartsville, South Carolina area. He submitted an
application to the Comptroller of the Currency for a license
certificate, and the request was denied. Reason:
"... we were unable to reach a favorable conclusion as to
the need factor."
- CAMP v. PITTS, 411 U.S. 138, at 139 (1973).
That is correct: The Comptroller denied the application because
the community was already adequately served by other banks, and
there was no "need," seemingly, for the new proposed national
bank. In this way, the existing banks in Hartsville shut out a
new impending competitor. The letter from the Comptroller, in
turning down the License request, listed the banks already in the
Hartsville area and the deposits they carried [CAMP, id., at
139]. The Comptroller seemed to be very concerned about
enhancing the financial enrichment of the existing banks; and at
no time was there any discussion about the improved service the
end consumer would be experiencing, or of the very competitive
rates of interest on loans that new upstarts searching for
business charge. But like the tightly regulated issuance of
local Television Station licenses by the FCC, the Comptroller of
the Currency is on a mission: To make sure that the owners of
existing banks are very well fed, and so throwing Torts at the
public is nothing they are going to concern themselves with. For
a summary of the laws creating obstacles for new prospective
banks to go into business, see the Editor's Notes called BANK
CHARTERS, BRANCHING, HOLDING COMPANY AND MERGER LAWS:
COMPETITION FRUSTRATED in 71 Yale Law Journal 592 (1962).
============================================================[634]
The secondary consequences of restraining the number of new
market entrants politically are elevated prices the end consumer
winds up paying, constricted services and retarded technological
innovations. [635]
[635]============================================================
The telephone companies have exclusive geographical districts
assigned to them with no competitors -- a pure monopoly; and if
the FCC had not intervened to allow third party telephones and
other equipment to be connected to local telephone company lines,
you would never have been able to have automatic redialing on
your phones -- such nice little effort savers are the result of
competition, and not your local phone company, who could care
less. Computers have been used extensively for telephone
switching since the middle 1960's, and the continuing refusal of
the phone company to assign a few byte locations in their
computer's memory to remember your last dialed number, occurred
for just one reason: They have a monopoly, they have their
enrichment pipeline set up, and they don't care about you at all
[a relative statement that will be viewed as being excessively
harsh by those who never bothered to give any thought to
evaluating, comparatively, the service attitude manifested by
businessmen in a competitive operating atmosphere, with those
businessmen who don't need to concern themselves with competitive
pressures.] Yes, MINIMALISM rules in all uncompetitive
environments, Commercial and otherwise.
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George Mercier