单选题 The world is going through the biggest wave of mergers and acquisitions ever witnessed. The process sweeps from hyperactive America to Europe and reaches the emerging countries with unsurpassed might. Many in these countries are looking at this process and worrying: "Won"t the wave of business concentration turn into an uncontrollable anti-competitive force?" There"s no question that the big are getting bigger and more powerful. Multinational corporations accounted for less than 20% of international trade in 1982. Today the figure is more that 25% and growing rapidly. International affiliates account for fast-growing segment of production in economies that open up and welcome foreign investment. In Argentina, for instance, after the reforms of the early 1990s, multinationals went from 43% to almost 70% of the industrial production of the 200 largest firms. This phenomenon has created serious concerns over the role of smaller economic firms, of national businessmen and over the ultimate stability, of the world economy I believe that the most important forces behind the massive M&A wave are the same that underlie the globalization process: falling transportation, and communication costs, lower trade and investment barriers and enlarged markets that require enlarged operations capable of meeting customers" demands. All these are beneficial, not detrimental to consumers. As productivity grows, the world"s wealth increases. Examples of benefits or costs of the current concentration-wave are scanty. Yet it is hard to imaging that the merge of a few oil firms today could recreate the same threats to competition that were feared nearly a century ago in the U. S., when the Standard Oil trust was broken up. The mergers of telecom companies, such as World Corn, hardly seem to bring higher prices for consumers or a reduction in the pace of technical progress. On the contrary, the price of communications is coming down fast. In cars, too, concentration is increasing—witness Daimler and Chrysler, Renault and Nissan—but it does not appear that consumers are being hurt. Yet the fact remains that the merger movement must be watched. A few weeks ago, Alan Greenspan warned against the mega mergers in the banking industry. Who is going to supervise, regulate and operate, as lender of last resort with the gigantic banks that are being created? Won"t multinationals shift production from one place to another when a nation gets too strict about infringements to fair corn petition? And should one country take upon itself the role of "defending competition" on issues that affect many other nations, as in the U. S.

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】解析：本题为推理题，这需要全面了解第四段的内容，并要注意把握其中的细节。由本段中的最后一句话“but it does not appear that consumers are being hurt”可以判断出选项A为错误陈述；本段中作者以World Corn为例的目的是说明合并的益处，但并未论述其代价，故选项B不恰当；本段并未提及选项C的内容。由本段中第二句话“…recreate the same threats to competition that were feared…when theStandard Oil trust was broken up”可以推测出标准石油托拉斯曾威胁到竞争的公平性，故选D。