A quick question for AC Peeps: Market failure

[nietzreznor]

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so what’s the AC solution to private monopolies, cartels and such? Without a state the market operators would consolidate and that would prevent the markets to work in the most efficient way.

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You should read Gabriel Kolko's Triumph of Conservatism. He shows how the mid-late 19th century America--the period generally considered to be one of rampant big businesses and giant cartels--was actually one of fierce competition and decentralization.
Of course, the big businesses wanted to cartelize their respective industries, but it just wasn't possible without federal regulation. Thus Kolko shows how it was the businesses themselves that cried for the federal regulations that allowed them to stifle competition and subsequently cartelize the industries and form monopolies.

The idea that businesses will consolidate and cartelize ad infinitum without the benevolent State is, imo, largely mythical, and Kolko's work proveds an excellent historical backbone to the traditional arguments against business' ability to form cartels in an unregulated market.