However, there's no reason that Wal-Mart or other mega-retailers, the media conglomerates, the mega-banks, need to be that size.

There really are not network economies or economies of scale there, just financial clout ... ability to bring economic power to bear on smaller competitors ... and the financial advantage of capital markets seeing them as too big to fail.


I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.