By Staff
I read with interest earlier this week a little brief in national news about Wal-Mart considering entering the financial services industry by offering mortgages.
I don't know why that surprised me. It shouldn't have. However, the implications of such, I found frightening.
Not to worry, another brief on Friday said Wal-Mart had withdrawn its application for limited banking operations after staunch criticism from those in the industry. It did so, apparently, after it realized that those who oppose the idea would work to block it and securing approval would take years, rather than months, as it had expected.
I'm not sure what would happen in reality if Wal-Mart offered mortgages and other banking services. Probably nothing. However, consider what a company with Wal-Mart's holdings and capitalization could do to influence the financial services industry. It could be staggering. I mean, would Wal-Mart end up owning the world? That's ridiculous. Or, is it?
I'm a red-blooded, American capitalist – a cheerleader for free enterprise and competition. However, I'm not sure how Wal-Mart and Halliburton and AT&T and the like fit into that picture.
We in Niles are more fortunate than most with our Wal-Mart store. Ours has a very active, loyal group of employees, led by Mary Jane Davis, who make it their mission to give back to our community. I'm not sure that's the experience of most communities with Wal-Marts. We all recall the number of small businesses here that went away after Wal-Mart opened its Niles store. Still, Niles fared better than most. Some communities had entire retail sectors decimated by Wal-Mart's arrival in their communities.
I personally have some lingering Wal-Mart resentment from the time when you would walk into the store and see the many "Made in America" banners hanging above racks of clothing, which actually were not made in America, but rather someplace like Taiwan. I remember hearing some older residents talking about how happy they were that they could shop in Wal-Mart and know they were supporting American manufacturers. But such wasn't reality, it was just Wal-Mart's deceptive marketing.
We also read this week that Halliburton has made the decision to move its company headquarters from Houston to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. That, too, should not be surprising. Halliburton probably figures it's getting close to having finished sucking the lifeblood out of the American taxpayer via the Iraq war and it's time to move on. I'd just like for Halliburton officials and insiders in the Bush administration to be made to account for the billions and billions of taxpayer dollars wasted as part of our war effort.
Back in 1974, the Justice Department filed suit against AT&T, which was known at the time as "Ma Bell," claiming it was a monopoly.
Subsequently, as part of a settlement agreement, the company was broken up into smaller, independent companies, like Bell South, which were known as "Baby Bells."
Fast forward 34 years and what do we find? AT&T has merged with just about every company it spun off, including SBC and Bell South, and has taken over competing cell phone companies, like Cingular Wireless. An argument certainly could be made that the resulting company is well on its way to again monopolizing telecommunications.
Big keeps getting bigger. Rich keep getting richer, while the divide between the haves and the have nots grows wider by the day. At some point, corporate America must grow a conscience. Short of that, we need to find some way for them to shoulder some responsibility and be accountable to more than just their stockholders.