What is so confusing about Veblen is that he was not worrying about what Adam Smith worried about when businessmen colluded, which is to say the probability of price increases and, under static conditions, the reduced output that would accompany higher prices. Veblen was concerned about the loss of output -- the waste -- associated with disruptions at the interstices. As I read him, he thought, whether naively or not, that better coordination among firms would offset any price advances that might result. And, of course, he was not thinking of a static world. In both respects his thought was much like that which Hoover, as an engineer, brought to the Department of Commerce. By the time Hoover became President he had to deal with a wider variety of issues, including monetary policy and management, and that is, of course, another and sad story. Anne Mayhew