[rcme]

A typical example is a merge underway right now: Kroger and Albertsons are trying to merge. Apparently the CEO of Kroger has been quoted on a call as saying "We view a little bit of inflation as always good in our business." Albertsons is owned by a private equity (PE) firm Cerberus Capital Management. Another example is PE firms buying and merging veterinaries to reduce competition in the market [0]. Yet another example is PE firms buying up over half of the air ambulance Medicare market and jacking up prices [1]. This type of behavior is PE's bread and butter. There are thousands of examples.

In addition to private equity, there are also conflicts of interest from index funds. Institutional investors own over 80% of the S&P 500. Vanguard and BlackRock are the two largest shareholders of a majority of S&P 500 companies. This means BlackRock and Vanguard are the largest shareholder of American and United airlines. Some question whether or not this is also leading to higher prices [2].

0: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2022/06/...

1: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/high-air-ambulance-charge...

2: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/13/business/dealbook/rise-of...

[gfdsgfsdgfs]

Okay, so Kroger and Albertsons have not merged. Why are you blaming current inflation on a merger that doesn't exist?

Those industries you named are far from consolidated. The largest veterinarian (VCA) owns 20% market share. The largest air ambulance one owns 30% (Air Methods). The largest general ambulance service (Envision) owns just 10%.

[rcme]

You don't consider two PE firms controlling 64% of the market to be consolidated? Here is a history of mergers in the air ambulance space [0]:

> In 2010, Bain Capital bought Air Medical Group Holdings for $1 billion, only to sell it five years later for double that amount to KKR, which, in turn, merged the company with yet another air-ambulance provider, American Medical Response, under the name Global Medical Response. (Tracking this shell game can be dizzying. In the three years between Hoechlin’s air-ambulance flight and mine, Guardian Flight merged with REACH Air Medical Services; both are owned by Global Medical Response.) In 2017, American Securities drastically accelerated private equity’s takeover of the air-ambulance industry with its $2.5 billion purchase of Air Methods, the largest domestic provider of air ambulances. (In 2016, during its final year as a publicly traded company, Air Methods posted a $97.9 million profit on $1.17 billion in revenue, and the year before had paid its CEO $2.5 million in direct compensation, including stock options.) That purchase established the industry’s current landscape, in which two private-equity firms, American Securities and KKR, control almost two-thirds of the national market for air ambulances, according to Medicare data.

0: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/04/how-private-equity-t...

Also, regarding the vets, JAB bought emergency vet services in specifically target geographic locations to control the market for emergency vet services in those areas. They control a tiny portion of the overall market, but their consolidation still allows for higher prices in the regions they operate in.