Thank you to the audience member of Bill Bowsher’s show on SciZone in Cincinnati who wanted to know if the bailout was an example of a conscious parallelism:
conscious parallelism n.
An undiscussed imitation by a business of a competitor’s action, such as changing prices up or down without the active conspiracy between business rivals, which would make this coincidental activity a violation of anti-trust laws. Example: Air Chance Airline offers a two-for-one special for all flights over 1,000 miles, and, within a week, several other airlines offer the same bargain. 2) Rumble Oil Company stations set gasoline prices at $1.38 for premium and the next day all gas stations in the Rumble market area set their pumps at $1.38.
Coincidence? No, conscious parallelism.
From: http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/conscious+parallelism