You could theoretically rest on your laurels, but if you do that for too long, then you

run the risk of losing that monopolistic power.

You probably won't lose it if you're a regulated monopoly or a legal monopoly like a utility,

but you could lose it if you're the dominant player in search and you stop innovating and

chat to GBT isn't even on your radar, for example.

I'm Chris Hill and that's Motley Fool's Senior Analyst Ron Gross.

There are strong companies and then there are monopolies.

Mary Long cut up with Ron Gross to talk about the fundamentals of investing in monopolies,

why monopolies are legal and a few of them that are currently trading at reasonable valuations.

So Ron, today we are talking monopolies.

We all get to some specific stocks in a few minutes, but the first thing that comes to my

mind when I hear the word monopoly is how I got monopolies.

At least here in the US we're supposed to be illegal.

Yeah, so I don't want to get too into the legal weeds here, but in general, it's not really

that monopolies are legal.

It's the harm that can be caused to consumers from a monopoly that the government is really

trying to avoid.

Now way back when in 1890, Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act, that was the first

step to limit the harm.

Then we had the Federal Trade Commission Act and the Clayton Act, both from 1914, so way

back in the day.

And these are laws that the government can use to protect consumers.

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