ABSTRACT
The old solution of the problem of economic power suffered the same devastation from the new measures of market concentration and the new ideas as did the old confidence that social efficiency would be maximized. The competition of the competitive model solved the problem of private economic power by denying it, at least in a dangerous form, to anyone. In the American liberal tradition, a finding that private economic power exists has been tantamount to a demand that it be suppressed. At first glance the position of the businessman — the head of large corporation in particular — would appear to have been considerably strengthened by new shape which the problem of market power had taken. Even though the businessman's market power had come into full view, those who were alarmed were hopelessly divided. Some, accepting the logic of their own analysis, sought a reform of the whole structure of modem corporate enterprise — its disintegration into many small units.
