Bayer Monsanto merger going through despite anti-trust law
The US Department of Justice, once considered the office that would protect the American economy from the fatal cancer of monopoly has now officially become the office that facilitates monopoly through legal loopholes.
It’s hard to argue with the consistency of the DOJ, though, since the office has done nothing to prevent monopolies from taking shape and has sat back and watched while Free Trade folly and fascism have grown to a level never before seen in America. At least the DOJ knows the law so, in that sense, it’s the perfect office to sell Americans down the river.
Of course, selling Americans down the river is exactly what the DOJ has done and, if the new merger between Bayer and Monsanto is any inclination, that river will be so polluted, it will be safer to drink from the water fountains at the Daichii nuclear reactor plant.
The US Department of Justice has reached a settlement that would allow Bayer AG’s $66 billion takeover of Monsanto Co, requiring the German company to sell $9 billion in agricultural assets first.
The merger as initially proposed would have harmed consumers and farmers by eliminating competition, the DOJ said. However, the Trump administration is satisfied with the terms of the settlement announced Tuesday.
“America’s farm system is of critical importance to our economy, to our food system, and to our way of life,” said Makan Delrahim, head of the DOJ’s antitrust division. “American farmers and consumers rely on head-to-head competition between Bayer and Monsanto.”
In other words, the DOJ has simply negotiated with both massive corporations to determine the best way in which the two may merge without technically violating US anti-trust law. In this instance, its Bayer selling a portion of its agriculture interests to an associated company BASF-SE.
Bayer and BASF have had a long history of working together, particularly going back to the day of IG Farben, the famed producer of Xyklon B gas used to exterminate Jewish people during the Holocaust and exploiting slave labor from German concentration camps. As you can see, whenever Bayer and BASF work together, it tends not to work out so well for the “little people.” *
RT continues,
Last October, Bayer agreed to sell its Liberty herbicide brand, cotton and soybean seeds, and other seed capabilities to BASF SE, another German chemical corporation. That deal was worth €5.9 billion. Another sale to BASF was announced in April, with Bayer divesting of herbicides, wheat hybrids research and digital farming business that had combined sales amounting to €2.2 billion in 2017, according to Bloomberg.
EU regulators approved the merger in March.
Once combined, Bayer-Monsanto will be the world’s biggest agrochemical corporation, surpassing DowDuPont Inc. and China National, which acquired Syngenta AG last year.
Monsanto is the world’s leading producer of genetically modified (GMO) seeds, and has faced widespread criticism and protests over the effects its products have had on the environment and biodiversity. Roundup, Monsanto’s most popular herbicide, has been blamed for the collapse in the Monarch butterfly population as well as the “colony collapse disorder” decimating the honeybees in Europe and North America.
So there you have it. America’s food supply, economy, wildlife, and environment are all going down the tubes and the Department of Justice, Monsanto, and Bayer are at the helm, lowering the lever on the toilet bowl. If Americans had any pretense that their government was working for their benefit, we trust that illusion has been shattered. For now. That is, until Bayer finishes “rebranding” Monsanto and manages to “get beyond this image and reputation thing.”