>>Exactly. No corporation should be too big to fail. The government bailing out corporations is step one in nationalizing them.
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>At least if they were nationalized, they wouldn't be using bailout money to buy smaller ones - just look at what the banks were doing. Among all the deregulation fuss, the anti-trust laws seem to have been thrown out of the window first. Well, not really thrown out. A service was paid to take them out, neatly packaged, no spillage.
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>Just look around these threads: newspapers vanishing, this consolidating, that merging... and the assortment dwindling. Every week or two I notice an item vanish from the shelves. Question for East-coasters: was the last time you saw knackwurst at Kroger? IIRC, October or even earlier. They're just gone. How many other suppliers of chocolate are there, besides Hershey? When was the last time you saw them on the shelves? How many cell phone providers are there? Who bought whom in the last two years?

Very strange Dragan. I don't shop at Kroger, but rather Food Lion and Harris Teeter. Knackwurst is available (I usually get the Deutsche Kuche smoked bratwurst instead but last week I picked Kielbasa for some reason) and many different brands of chocolate. Perhaps Kroger's is having to limit their offerings?

As to the the purchases of banks, when a bank is taken over by the FDIC (due to failing), the bank goes on the silent auction block (all banks are notified, but only banks). If no one purchases it, it stays in government ownership.