Apple's $1 trillion milestone reflects rise of powerful mega-firms

US Steel. General Motors. AT&T. Exxon Mobil. Small potatoes. Apple on Thursday reached a milestone that these icons of capitalism never dreamed of: A market value of more than $1 trillion.

That landmark is the result of an extraordinary corporate success story. In a span of just 21 years, a near-bankrupt computer maker evolved into the most valuable publicly traded company in the United States, pushing the tech industry away from big, bulky machines and producing some of the world’s most popular consumer products, like the iMac, the iPod and the iPhone. 

Apple’s new 13-figure valuation highlights how a group of enormous companies has come to dominate the US economy.

Today, a smaller cluster of American companies commands a larger share of total corporate profits than since the 1970s. The impact of this phenomenon has been clear in the stock markets, where a band of household-name companies — led by Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google — has fueled the nine-year bull market, the second-longest behind the rally that ended in 2000. Their successes also are propelling the broader economy, which is on track for its fastest growth rate in a decade.
 

But the effects of the consolidation of corporate profits extend far beyond the stock markets — and they are not entirely benign. Economists, for example, are starting to look into whether the rise of so-called superstar firms is contributing to the lackluster wage growth, shrinking middle class and rising income inequality in the United States. The vast social and political influence wielded by these megacompanies has prompted some lawmakers to demand more regulation to rein them in. 
 

“It’s one of the most important trends that we’re experiencing,” said Roni Michaely, an economist at the University of Geneva. “It’s really about economic growth, economic inequality and consumer welfare.”
 

In the past few decades, a profound shift has taken place in the distribution of corporate profits among American companies. In 1975, 109 companies collected half of the profits produced by all publicly traded companies.