Consider reinstating limits on the life of corporations and require liquidation upon reaching a certain size

You may not have thought of this, but corporations have not always existed. They were created to provide protection to shareholders so that shareholders would not be liable for the debts of the corporation. When corporations were first being organized, under state statutes, corporations were required to terminate their business operations at the end of a stated number of years, and their assets then used to pay any outstanding debts with the remainder being distributed to shareholders. This limitation was imposed to prevent unlimited growth which early political thinkers saw could occur if corporations were allowed (similar to churches) to exist almost forever. Early planners did not want the "dead hand of the church" (inheriting the property of human beings as they died, and not itself having to worry about dying). Later, corporations were allowed to form to conduct business activities "in perpetuity", with the result that corporations now are able to operate for hundreds of years, unlike human business competitors who have a useful business life of about 20 to 30 years in any one business. The result of this difference is that corporations tend to keep growing and human businesses (even if incorporated) tend to go out of business after a run of anywhere from 0 to 30 years. This difference in life between human business and impersonal multinational corporate business has resulted in business practices (including the purchase of political favors) that enable the large corporations to push the smaller, human-based businesses out of business.

Adam Smith said that "Corporate danger number one [was] the quest for unlimited life". He argued in favor of limited life corporations. See discussion at Ch. 2, The Emperor's Nightingale, by Robert A. J. Monks. The ebook is available at The Emperor's Nightingale, by Monks, an eBook.

The cure for this seems to be (i) to limit corporations to a maximum number of years (such as 40 or 50 years), after which the corporation should be required to sell off its assets, pay its debts, and distribute the rest as a cash distribution to its shareholders; and (ii) if a corporation prior to such 40- to 50-year period should reach a certain size or market share (both to be determined in the enabling state legislation) the corporation should be required to liquidate its business activities for cash, pay its debts, and distribute the rest to shareholders.

In this way, society will be able to curtail the massive, wide-ranging abuses attributable to corporate size, and allow competing corporations their own opportunity to grow, become number one, and be liquidated in the same way. In this way, human-based businesses will have a better ability to compete on a more level playing field.

As NYS Attorney General, I would attempt to revive this limited life doctrine in appropriate situations, including the banning of corporations from operating in New York State (by denial of a certificate of qualification to do business or by taking away a New York certificate of incorporation) for continuing violations of federal or state law causing injury to New York residents and law-abiding New York businesses. Also, for cause, certificates of incorporation (i.e., "corporate charters") and certificates of qualification to do business in New York could be conditional and limited to a few years, to be able to deny renewal if the corporation has not been complying with the antitrust laws. Broadcast corporations have to deal with a similar legal provision. Every 8 years their FCC license to broadcast is up for renewal and could be denied for a variety of reasons (some of which now seem to be very political).