Discussion: Are "muckrakers" important in today's work? Why or why not? Economics lesson on vertical and horizontal integration – the ways businesses expand. Vertical integration is adding on operations either before or after the production process. Carnegie, for example, accomplished his steel business expansion by vertically integrating "backward" (back to the suppliers) adding on/acquiring supplies of pig iron, coal and coke for his steel production. He also acquired steamships and rail lines and in doing so integrated "forward," or towards the consumer. Horizontal integration controls a stage of production and the process seeks to gain a monopoly of the market to eliminate competition and to stabilize prices. Standard Oil is a great example of this, but railroads also integrated horizontally.

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