[otterley]

Claiming that a monopolist is the good guy because he eliminates his competition by lowering prices is like closing a great novel halfway through. It's what happens _after_ all the competition has been killed off that's interesting: it's difficult to resist the temptation of raising prices significantly once there's nobody left to compete with you.

[jdsully]

John Rockefeller was an old man by the time the antitrust suit came - the gouging phase never came with him at the helm. Further, his peak market share occurred long before. At the time of the anti trust he had 65% share, vs the 85% at Standard Oil's peak 30 years prior.

Its quite possible his successors might have followed the standard playbook. But Rockefeller himself is not an example of this consumer harming tactic. This is why his biggest critic was the daughter of another oil man, not a harmed consumer.

If you take anything away from the Rockefeller story it should be that the consumers need not be currently harmed for a successful prosecution. The standard and false "common knowledge" actually defangs the law quite a bit.