The Telephone, Political Entrepreneurship, And Theodore M. Vail

The Telephone, Political Entrepreneurship, And Theodore M. Vail Authored by Joshua Mawhorter via Mises Institute, Originally, this article was intended to be an exploration as to how-after a period of initial patent monopoly and an all-too-brief episode of freer market competition-cronyism reestablished a telephone monopoly that would last for decades. While such an article is worthwhile and hopefully forthcoming, I was struck by the influence of one man's leadership strategy as president of AT&T/the Bell System and how open he was about limiting competition in his industry, inviting regulation, and seeking...