turbobuckeye

Treed!

Not sure why you say "corporate refusal." They're trying to minimize their tax liability, which is their fiduciary duty. If you owned a slice of that company, would you want money to go to distributions or taxes? Congress is to blame here. The US tax code is essentially the only one of all countries that doesn't have a regional income policy. The IRS just follows companies and individuals around the world.

Nope. See http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2016/09/community-banks... and many others.

Disagree. While there are certainly other social apps, there is no (significant) direct competitor to FaceBook's core product. When you buy a car (e.g.) you generally have plenty of very similar options. That's not the case here. If we use the car analogy, FaceBook could be a sedan, and if you don't want a sedan your options are...well...not much. Of course you can buy a motorcycle (Instagram), moped (Pinterest), or van (Snapchat), but none of these are really the same thing other than the fact that they're motorized transport devices.

Regulation is certainly a problem, but the unfettered growth and merging of many companies over the last decade has been nothing short of breathtaking. Amazon, Google, Facebook are all essentially monopolies in their space. Banks have combined to form behemoths (and good luck starting a bank these days with Dodd-Frank on the books). Until the government addresses unfair and anticompetitive behavior and concentration, this trend will continue.