> There are some really nice graphs in first year economics that explain this.

Yes, and they’re bullshit, as are the ones that suggest firms price competitively, that markets tend towards competition and not consolidation, that government spending is inherently bad, and all the other Chicago-school Reagan-revolution bullshit that’s left this country with third-world infrastructure, income inequality that would embarrass a Rockefeller, and no industrial base to speak of.