The proposed merger between AT&T and Time Warner is "absurd" — and President-elect Donald Trump should follow through on his promise to block the $84 billion deal, economist Peter Morici told Newsmax TV on Wednesday.
"American consumers and middle-class families are too besieged by monopolistic elements," Morici, a business professor at the University of Maryland, told "Newsmax Prime" host J.D. Hayworth.
"Local hospitals that shake-down insurance companies with big rates, the drug companies, the concentration of the banks since their financial crisis into fewer numbers — and the cable companies in particular.
"This merger is absurd," Morici declared. "I found it beyond the pale of decency for AT&T CEO [Randall Stephenson] to lay claim to the notion that this was a pro-competitive merger.
"It is nothing but an attempt to lock up the market."
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Morici also endorsed Trump's planned nomination of WWE co-founder Linda McMahon to lead the U.S. Small Business Administration.
"The purpose of the Small Business Administration is to facilitate small businesses getting access to technical assistance from the Commerce Department, to get access to its lines of credit and joint-venturing with banks on loans.
"It makes sense."
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