Greenspan Plays Down Spate of Mergers

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan said it is too soon to determine the economic impact of the recent wave of multibillion-dollar corporate mergers, but he asked Congress to be cautious in substituting government regulations for free-market forces. Greenspan was the lead witness as the Senate Judiciary Committee heard from top government antitrust officials in a hearing seeking to determine how the recent spate of mergers in banking and other industries will affect American consumers and the economy. “The effects of the present merger wave . . . have yet to be determined, but there is little reason to expect their influence will differ substantially from the merger wave of the early 1980s, which produced at most a slight increase in manufacturing concentration,” Greenspan told the committee. Some members of Congress have expressed concern that big bank mergers could force consumers to pay higher fees because of reduced competition.