What REALLY happened to DuMont Labs?

[Carmine]

Only a couple points to add...

1) That part about former regulators landing cushy jobs in the industries they regulated a just few years before is very true. I suspect in the 50s, it was more American company vs. American company. Once Zenith had ruined RCA's patent monopoly in the USA with the threat of a lawsuit, RCA simply moved onto licensing and tech-sharing agreements with Japanese companies. Zenith may have thought a legal remedy would work again, but it did not.

Trade policy is an executive-branch function, which means potentially every 4 years (but certainly every 8) many highly paid people (lawyers) in the Federal Trade Commission are looking for new jobs. Want a nice job working for Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. after Jimmy Carter loses his re-election? Be a good boy and foot-drag or ignore the evidence of television dumping in the USA. That's what ultimately killed Zenith and is now killing the US white-good industry, forcing consolidation, leaving Whirlpool like Zenith circa 1978... An giant in the industry, but with major storm clouds ahead.

http://www.whirlpoolcorp.com/facts/

2) I take all these inflation calculators with a grain of salt. Both my grandparents were mid-middle-class people (but not upper caste) who were very conservative about their spending. Factory jobs, kids, mortgage on a 3bdrm brick ranch, new-ish mid-price cars... But they had TV in the late 40s and by the early 60s, bought nothing but Zenith/Magnavox stuff. If TV really cut into their income as much has been claimed, they would have done without. In fact, they did without CoLoR until '68 (buying Magnavox and Zenith) at the same time. If a $600 tv was like a $10,000 item to me, I assure you they'd have done without.