Michelle Slatalla (New York Times, February 3, 2005) stated, "The conventional wisdom a few years back was that the Internet would erase price differences among retailers by giving customers instant access to the best deals. Merchants who charged more would be driven out of business." She further quoted Professor Michael Baye, who noted, "The prediction was price-comparison sites would create perfectly competitive environments in which all firms would have to charge the same price." These forecasts for the Internet creating "perfectly competitive" markets were based on the competitive model we have presented in this chapter. Do you think the Internet has helped create more competitive markets or less? Why?