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Aug 28, 2002

This week's theme
Words about buying & selling

This week's words
oniomania
duopoly
monopsony
nummary
emptor

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monopsony

noun: A market condition where there is only one buyer for a product or service that's being sold by many.

[From Greek mono- (one) + opsonia (purchase of provisions).]

Here's a little chart that explains this week's jumble:

monopsony : one buyer, many sellers
duopsony : two buyers, many sellers
oligopsony : a few buyers, many sellers

monopoly : one seller, many buyers
duopoly : two sellers, many buyers
oligopoly : a few sellers, many buyers

"Thirty years ago many African countries had active `anti-agricultural' policies, taxing farm exports to finance poorly performing industrial firms, and allowing state monopsonies to gouge producers."
Biting the Silver Bullet; The Economist (London), Mar 25, 2000.

"Klein said these sites would violate antitrust rules if the buyers improperly shared information, or if they effectively created a single buyer -- a monopsony -- and drove prices so low that innovation by the smaller companies would suffer."
Neil Munro; White House: Omens From the Microsoft Case; National Journal (Washington, DC); May 27, 2000.

X-Bonus