If by the 4th branch you mean People keeping the government to their word and not buy bullshit for shoe shine then that's fine, otherwise it grew a branch, but it's beside the point, you believe that monopoly is something that happens not in free market or that what the article is talking about couldn't happen in a true free market but I'm saying that monopoly is a natural consequence of freedom and the bottom line, whether it is because of ambition or greed or even to see if it could be done like Thalos did with the olive press market/demand, it's is all in maximizing efficiency/increasing returns. Most crapitalists truly think that free, unfettered demand and supply is the best thing ever, shortsighted though because taken to it's conclusion we are left with one ring to rule them all, one conglomerate, one Big-n-Low.
I think it's a natural consequence of competition, especially when ethics seem like if the price is right and the offer is accepted then nobody was taken advantage of. I don't agree, it is exploitation as far as I'm concerned. Capitalism is far from perfect and it relies on exploitation not of ideas like it wants to tout but of wealth, labor and ultimately people, and it doesn't advance us, it only pits us on endless carrot chasing on our hamster wheels/roles/jobs while the wealth keeps concentrating and accumulating in the exploiters pockets who either get vilified or adored, condemned or commended but who are among the best or luckiest at accruing wealth. The irony is that there was never any such a thing as money, and there could never be such a thing as a unit of measure cannot be tangible, exactly like a gallon, a yard, the number 1, and all such abstractions are only abstraction and cease being abstraction when they are tangible. You cannot have a limit on units of account and expect people to be able to valuate anything correctly with an ever scarce, constantly fluctuating, representative token, so in reality all you have is a system of wealth representation, wealth, actual wealth being resources or labor, yet wealth throws itself after meaningless tokens that "everything is worth" and represented with because competition over tokens is out if this world.
I don't think we can have capitalism until the oxymoron of money being a tangible, unique, constantly fluctuating unit of measure is resolved, then maybe we can discuss taxes, limits and checks so that wealth flows out of exploitation of human labor and hoarding of resources and into the invaluable people themselves, because I think it's ridiculous to think that capitalism, unfettered trade, will empower people as it subjugates people and exploits demand and supply over essentially a frantic game of holding onto and gathering more and more wealth.
As the current famous president once said in an interview regarding what he was going to do with all the millions :
"Make more millions"
And when asked, and what's he going to do with those millions..
Make mur millions.
RE: Big Pharma Conspiracy Hiked Prices 1,000%, Being Sued by 44 U.S. States