A panel is turning its focus to the telecommunications, health and transportation industries in a move that could help protect small-business profits.
Senate Gets Fired Up About Competition in Key Sectors
The leaders of a Senate Judiciary Committee panel dedicated to antitrust have announced they plan to spend this congressional term focused on the telecommunications, health and transportation sectors. These three sectors are absolutely critical to small businesses; together they represent nearly $6.5 trillion in annual expenditures or nearly half of the country’s economy. Any anti-competitive practices, such as collusion to keep prices artificially high, means billions of dollars in additional expenses and less profits for small businesses.
The subcommittee is specifically interested in:
- The merger of U.S. Airways and American Airlines, which would create the largest airline in the country and consolidate key routes.
- “Pay-for-delay” deals in which pharmaceutical companies pay generic manufacturers to delay production of generic versions of drugs that are no longer protected by patents.
- The repeal of antitrust exemptions for the railroad industry, which has allowed transporters to drive up rates significantly.
About Mike Periu
Mike is a seasoned executive with experience in small business finance and management. He is the founder of Proximo, LLC a leading provider of corporate, consumer and small business education and training services with an emphasis on finance and technology.
Mike Periu is also a leading national voice for individual empowerment through financial education and entrepreneurship. He has been interviewed over 500 times in national and international media, including NBC, Univision, CNN en español, Telemundo, HITN, TVE, RTE, SBS, MegaTV and others.
Mike writes regularly for American Express OpenForum, Yahoo! Finanzas and is a Huffington Post contributor.
Mike has degrees in Finance and International Business from Georgetown University. He is on the Board of Directors of the Council for Economic Education and was a Fellow at the Kauffman Foundation’s Labs for Enterprise Creation.
