The purpose of antitrust policy is to promote _______, which leads to lower ________. Explain why this is so?

The purpose of antitrust policy is to promote _______, which leads to lower ________. Explain why this is so?  How would you counter the argument that combining operations would lead to greater efficiency and therefore lower prices?

2. Assume a healthy baseball pitcher is worth $5 million per year to his team, compared to only $1 million for an unhealthy one.  According to a baseball executive, "If my assumptions are correct, our team is willing to pay a maximum of $3 million for a pitcher in the free-agent market."

What are the executive's assumptions?

Are these assumptions realistic?

3. Imperfect information can go both ways. What are some examples (your own, not from the text) of market situations in which the seller has more information than the buyer and some examples in which the buyer has more information than the seller?

4.  Critical Thinking: All states, of which I am aware except NewHamshireI think, require automobile owners to insure their vehicle (a few allow people to self-insure).  Yet, studies show that having insurance actually increases the likelihood of an accident and increases the likelihood of a car / bicycle accident.  Discuss why this is so.  Who is protected and who is harmed by required automobile insurance?

5.Imperfect information is pretty common.  Many people who got caught up in variable interest mortgages claimed not to know the interest rates would go up after a few years.  Many people have been defrauded in Ponzi schemes.  Not too long ago a poor elderly lady was discovered to still be paying $3.00 a month to rent her phone from AT&T, something that was done way back in the 70s and before, when you could not own your own telephone.  One recent scam that has surfaced are people calling to help unknowing suspects to sign up for Obama Care and getting payments, which is stolen money.  Another is people calling and claiming the person missed jury duty and demanding money to pay off a fine.  Do you know anyone that has been defrauded or suffered simply because they did not know what they were doing?  Discuss.