Obama: More regs needed to spur competition

President Obama extolled the virtues of free market competition in signing a new executive order that will direct government agencies to take steps to shake up areas of the economy dominated by corporate monopolies.

"Competition is good for consumers," Obama told Yahoo Finance in an interview at the White House, which aired Friday morning.

"And ultimately it's good for business. That's the way the free market works. The more competition we have, the more products, services, innovation takes place," he added.

Obama, who is making the government-wide push in the final months of his presidency, said he has directed the Commerce Department to file paperwork with the Federal Communications Commission to demand that it increase competition in the set-top cable TV box market.

The president is taking aim at the boxes millions of Americans use every day because the costs of their rentals have shot up in recent years while the cost of other electronics such as computers and televisions have dropped dramatically, according to research by the White House.