Conglomerates and the Public Interest

Extracts from a paper delivered at a conference on the legal-economic aspects of conglomerates, University of Chicago, October 17, 1969. If by public interest we mean merely public curiosity, the answer to "What is the public interest?" is "considerable." The literature on conglomerates has expanded at least as rapidly as the conglomerates themselves and there is no shortage of policy prescriptions by economists, lawyers, and journalists. Indeed my concern has shifted from wondering if I could define the relevant issues to wondering if there is anything left to say. . .