There existed, at the turn of the century, two very different types of progressive thought. The thinking of Teddy Roosevelt was that the market should always involve a number of small interests competing with each other to produce at the lowest price possible. Hence, Roosevelt was known as a "trust-buster"; corporations like Standard Oil needed to be broken into smaller concerns.
A very different vision of businesses was held by Justice Louis Brandeis, who believed there was no such thing as a business that was too big. (Sound familiar?) Corporations should, in this view, be allowed to become enormous entities regulated closely by government. Ultimately, this view of business is totalitarian, because it takes no legal skill to nationalize behemoth corporations, making them part of the government.
The Obama administration follows the Brandeis model to a T- - consolidate, regulate, and confiscate.
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