Re:Home Depot Files Antitrust Lawsuit Against Visa, MasterCard
by logicallee on Friday June 17, 2016 @01:40PM
(#11924174)
But we don't live in bizarro-land where it's 7%, so we don't have to decide whether 7% or 15% would be profit-maximizing. But we can say for certain it's not 1.95%. The reason I feel that profit-maximizing is closer to 7% is the example of actual monopolies or duopolies.
Western Union, which cut its teeth on being a "an industrialized monopoly dominating the telegraph industry in the late 19th century" and in some areas I feel succeeded in establishing a money transfer monopoly, has rates close to 15% in some cases. Here is an economist talking about its remittance monopoly: http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=...
So in areas where western union might have a literal monopoly, or a duopoly[2], they might set their price at around 12%. This is ridiculously high, and shows a monopoly level of pricing.
1.95% is a level that reflects a fair amount of competition, not at all a trust versus cash. You can argue till the cows come home, but you can see the actual monopoly or duopoly rates on this type of thing for yourself and compare.
Western Union, which cut its teeth on being a "an industrialized monopoly dominating the telegraph industry in the late 19th century" and in some areas I feel succeeded in establishing a money transfer monopoly, has rates close to 15% in some cases. Here is an economist talking about its remittance monopoly: http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=...
So in areas where western union might have a literal monopoly, or a duopoly[2], they might set their price at around 12%. This is ridiculously high, and shows a monopoly level of pricing.
1.95% is a level that reflects a fair amount of competition, not at all a trust versus cash. You can argue till the cows come home, but you can see the actual monopoly or duopoly rates on this type of thing for yourself and compare.
[2] http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/apr/16/uk...