Competition & choices

It’s time Americans take a long hard look at the “financial experts” guiding our economy. In my mind they are experts in protecting their finances, and guiding the economy into their pockets.
I always understood competition to be the cornerstone of capitalism. If that is correct why has our government, under the guidance of these “experts” pretty much done away with competition all under the guise of better prices and service for the consumer?
In the oil industry for example Mobil, Exxon, Chevron, Phillips are now Exxon-Mobil and Chevron-Phillips, four companies that competed now down to two. Any competition here? The same holds true for consumer goods. Small stores, mom & pop shops covered the country each offering something different. Local flavor, a different shade of paint color, different prices since the products came from different manufacturers. They actually offered consumers choices. Now the majority of these stores and with them the choices we had are gone. We now can only buy what the big stores say we need and should buy at their prices. Is this competition and choice?
We have only a handful of large financial institutions because the “experts” said that’s the best way. What just happened without competition and accountability? It’s going on in the auto industry. Greed runs amuck with no concerns for the consumer.When constructing a bridge you normally use many support columns, and cables so that you can lose a portion of them without losing the structure and safety of the bridge at once. Shouldn’t our financial, auto and consumer businesses operate on the same theory? One or two come down there goes America; if we had 100 we could weather the financial storms with less damage. It’s time to dissolve the conglomerates, and bring back competition and choices.