Such practices are rationalized in part by Congress'. All of the ICC's political incentives place a premium upon increasing the number of its constituents -at least as long as it can do so at the expense of strong carriers' finances or inelastic consumer demand. Umbrella policy, then, is also consonant with political sbortsightedness, and is therefore a permanent feature of economic regulation. Recently, the ICC has stressed that only a small percentage of rates are suspended, and fewer still refused, because they are too low. Nonetheless, the cartel is alive and well.
Inflation means that rate decreases take the form of relatively smaller rate increases.
If confined to the innocuous data-gathering services they tout, rate bureaus' expenses would be minor. Instead, the approximately ninety rail, truck, and water traffic associations each collect millions of dollars every year from member carriers, most of which is spent to maintain forces of potent legal and lobbyist talent used on behalf of cartel interests. As long as the power of suspension and refusal over management decisions exists, there will be people to exploit it and magnify its superficially minor impact. Regulatory reform legislation would do no more than reaffirm this principle with similarly hollow words. Characteristically, regulation generates artificial monopoly gains in some economic sectors to dissipate them elsewhere.