OLIGOPSONY

February 4, 2010

Oligopsony
\’ä-le-‘gäp-se-ne\ n : a market situation in which each of a few buyers exerts a disproportionate influence on the market*

I was never well-versed in economics; being required to take it in high school and having that with political science as my only two options in college was highly depressing and frustrating because I warmed to neither one, picking “poli sci,” just because it was the lesser of the two evils, however even I know that this economy is a very tricky place to earn a living to support one’s family or even to provide sole financial support.
One of the few pieces of information I learned while in economics class (when I was actually paying attention), was what a monopoly was and what it entailed, it being the sales of a product being solely controlled by one company. This piece of information took me a while to process and even now, it sometimes throws me for a loop, so imagine my surprise and dismay of course, when I saw what the word was for today. An oligopsony is slightly different and provides more leeway as to the price of the product and the buyer’s market. Let’s just say economics still isn’t my strong suit and it often causes much hesitation when conversations center around the economy. Maybe it’s the familiar sound of each word that confuses me or maybe it’s just the sheer denial of the true state of whatever “opoly,” “opsony,” or economic catastrophe we encounter next.

First and third letter “e” is upside down producing sound of “uh”