Big Business Gobbles Up the Small

Well, Trump appears to be back and tweeting after his short bout with a virus whose dangers have been much exaggerated and the lockdowns it inspired have been mostly useless while causing massive economic damage. And of course, Trump is tweeting about the stock market,

STOCK MARKET HIGHS. VOTE!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2020

Ahhh yes, the good ole stock market reaching all time highs in the middle of a deep recession. Perhaps "money printer go brrr" doesn't exactly make everyone well off, just Wall Street.

Indeed, as The New York Times reported, the big are starting to simply gobble up the small.

"The essence of the problem is that during the extended economic crisis created by the coronavirus pandemic, many large companies — and especially their stock market values — have been growing rapidly while their small business competitors have faced something of an apocalypse. More than 400,000 small businesses have already closed and millions more are at risk.

"Indeed, the death of these competitors may be part of why the stock market is up so much from its low point in March."

On the other hand, here's how Amazon has done this year:

This is an absolutely massive and growing problem. And it really doesn't seem like either Trump or Biden has much to say about it.