One hallmark of a competitive market is that new firms are able to—and do—enter it… The key economic consideration is the relative difficulty of over… - Neil H. Jacoby

A corporate manager, interested in playing a numbers game with stock price-earnings ratios for quick profits, is able to inflate current reported profits at the expense of future profits. The methods are legion: shift from accelerated to straight-line depreciation; defer or stretch out maintenance expense; deplete inventories held at low cost; sell assets for ‘one-shot’ income. Excessive flexibility in permissible accounting methods creates opportunities for misleading reports of profits.

Before World War II, the United States Gulf and the Caribbean were the foreign world’s primary sources of crude oil. Eastern Hemisphere consumption was relatively small and yet its crude oil production supplied less than half of its petroleum needs.

A second drastic reduction in the political power of American corporate business occurred during the Great Depression of the 1930’s. This crisis shook the faith of the American people in the capability of its industrial and financial leaders, even in the enterprise system itself… Roosevelt sought to make political capital of the popular disillusionment with business; and he made business a scapegoat for errors of federal economic policy that had deepened and prolonged the depression.