America's Biggest Historical Monopolies

Without too much research I would say, Standard Oil (there was a book named The Seven Sisters published maybe thirty years ago that described the oligopoly of seven major oil companies), Bell Telephone, Labor Unions, maybe U.S. Steel and what?

Some say Intel is monopolistic because it leads in creativity and production of computer chips. It does have rivals like AMD, Ryzan and Nvidia etc. The cost of getting started is so high that there are few small business competitors producing chips at home in the U.S.A. It is possible that another way of storing data besides miniaturized transistors will be invented such that it works (why aren’t cpu’s made on solar panels so they can act like home super-computers nailed to the walls of homes) better than tiny transistors? There must be some way to get faster internet speed and an edge on all those foreigners that beat one at blitz chess because of faster internet service providers. 

Some regard the New England Patriots as semi-monopolistic… equal to the 20th century Yankees in baseball. I wouldn’t agree with that. In my opinion the Saints should win after having the NFC Championship stolen from them by prejudiced referees from Los Angeles.


Oh yes, there is Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more to consider (Amazon). It isn’t a monopoly. It simply has a hyper-efficient, state-of-the-biz ness model below the surface. It and e-bay just push the mom and pop malls out of business. The retail apocalypse has claimed 6,000 US stores in 2019 so far, more than the number that shut down in all of 2018