Bill Clinton: “Well, if it's being done to compete globally, and there's still adequate amount of competition so that consumers are…”

“Well, if it's being done to compete globally, and there's still adequate amount of competition so that consumers are protected in terms of price and quality, but American business becomes more globally competitive, then it's a good thing. If it is a function of there being an awful lot of money around in the economy today and it's just one of those periodic bursts of mergers which may or may not have a good effect on consumers and may or may not lend stability to our economy, then it's much more questionable. So I think that it requires a level of analysis about what is really going on here and why, that I simply haven't had either the opportunity to do or to get advised on by my folks. So I think it's something that should provoke a lot of comment and a lot of thought; experts around the country should be writing op-ed pieces for newspapers; people should be thinking through this, but--to help the American people understand it, because we've always had a native suspicion of bigness of all kinds in America. It goes all the way back to our beginning. It started with big government, and it's basically extended to all the large institutions in life. And Americans often feel that ordinary people don't have enough control over their lives anyway. So I think that there is going to be this questioning atmosphere, but I would just say, we need to analyze each one of these on their own merits and ask the questions that I just put out. I'm pretty convinced that I just gave you the right questions to ask; I just haven't had a chance to analyze it and have experts talk to me about it and work it through. Response to Criticism”