Business As Usual

This is the kind of news that is underreported, because it's a way of maintaining the myth of honesty and fair play in capitalism.  About a dozen airlines have been fined a total of $1.6 billion for engaging in cargo price-fixing.  So, while business people praise the virtues of the free market as regulator of economic activity, the truth of the matter is that the market is anything but free, being subject to all sorts of illegal manipulations by big business and other special interests.  This white-collar criminal activity is usually settled by paying a fine, something that is figured as part of the "cost of doing business."

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