"The tension between centrality, on the one hand, and competition, on the other, is probably the oldest of all market structure issues"
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Markets have always been torn between two competing fantasies: the tidy efficiency of a strong center and the restless energy of rivals snapping at each other’s heels. Arthur Levitt, speaking as a public servant steeped in securities regulation, frames that tug-of-war as less a technical problem than an ancestral one - a structural dilemma baked into commerce itself. The word "centrality" carries a double charge: it can mean stability, standard-setting, and trust (the things exchanges, clearinghouses, and regulators promise), but it also hints at gatekeeping and quiet monopoly power. "Competition", meanwhile, is the civic religion of capitalism, yet Levitt’s phrasing reminds you it can fragment liquidity, incentivize corner-cutting, and turn information into a weapon.
The intent is pragmatic: Levitt isn’t romanticizing competition or demonizing consolidation; he’s warning that market design is always political, even when it pretends to be neutral plumbing. His subtext is that every era rebrands the same fight with new vocabulary. In the 1990s and early 2000s, when Levitt’s worldview was forged at the SEC, the stakes were visible in debates over exchange demutualization, payment for order flow, and the rise of electronic trading venues. Centrality offered a single, legible price and clearer oversight; competition offered innovation and lower explicit fees while often raising the hidden ones.
Calling it "the oldest" issue is a rhetorical move that shrinks today’s supposedly unprecedented market controversies down to a recurring governance question: who gets to sit at the center, and what do they extract for the privilege?
The intent is pragmatic: Levitt isn’t romanticizing competition or demonizing consolidation; he’s warning that market design is always political, even when it pretends to be neutral plumbing. His subtext is that every era rebrands the same fight with new vocabulary. In the 1990s and early 2000s, when Levitt’s worldview was forged at the SEC, the stakes were visible in debates over exchange demutualization, payment for order flow, and the rise of electronic trading venues. Centrality offered a single, legible price and clearer oversight; competition offered innovation and lower explicit fees while often raising the hidden ones.
Calling it "the oldest" issue is a rhetorical move that shrinks today’s supposedly unprecedented market controversies down to a recurring governance question: who gets to sit at the center, and what do they extract for the privilege?
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| Topic | Business |
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