In Vietnam, property development rights, import-export monopolies, banking licences and so forth are the tools through which political allegiance is generated and deployed.
The designer Vivienne Westwood railed against capitalism in her address: "A triad of [fossil fuel] monopolies, banks and politicians are ruining the planet.
The main contradiction today is between the possibility of free, abundant goods and information; and a system of monopolies, banks and governments trying to keep things private, scarce and commercial.
Just as we commonly require public utilities to offer lifeline rates to senior citizens in exchange for the right to maintain their monopolies, banks should now be required to provide non-profit interest rates to students in exchange for the bailout and other support they regularly receive from government.
But why should the government have a monopoly on bank supervision?
On February 20th, BBVA bought Simple, an American online-banking platform, for $117m, in a deal that hints at the potential for innovators to shake up retail banking.BBVA, with €607 billion in assets and 50m customers, believes that traditional banks will soon lose their monopoly on banking.
Myriad new laws and presidential decrees constitute most of the change thus far -- diluting the government monopoly on banking, permitting private universities and allowing landlords to work out long-term leases with tenants, to name just a few.
(Agence France-Presse) IRAN: PRIVATIZATION BLOCKED Parliament has endorsed a move by a clergy-based council to block President Mohammad Khatami's plan to revive the economy by ending a state monopoly on banks and major industries.
LIKE most monopolies, central banking can be a highly lucrative business.
The Labour leader called for long-term shareholders to have greater voting rights in takeovers, backed workers on company remuneration committees and said he wanted to break up unwarranted private sector monopolies in banking, energy and the media.
