M. Meador, here..
Very good read!
Quick take and help to my fading memory - from here. I particularly liked to read his thoughts on innovation (more from recent work here and here)
Antitrust Policy for the Conservative 🤔 www.ftc.gov/system/files...
"values is a deep aversion to concentrated power and its potential for the corruption of justice and encouragement of vice" yes, you read correctly, vice - like willful non compliance of court orders?
But to brand the New Brandeisians as mere structuralists is, well, misguided.
"In our time, the idea that antitrust law is essential to preserving democracy predominantly is associated with the left and the progressive movement...the fact is that such a concern has a long pedigree on the right as well"
"...interpreting and applying the antitrust laws ...with an understanding of consumer welfare that actually focuses on consumers and an approach to legal and factual antitrust analyses that prioritizes avoiding false negatives over false positives"
"Preventing monopolies and concentrated corporate power, protecting small businesses, and shielding democracy from the influence of big business are all valid and conservative goals"
Even worse, "Bork's version of consumer welfare...implicitly requires deference to economists in how we decide legal questions"
"Conservatives should...advocate for legal and factual antitrust analyses that are less deferential to claimed efficiencies and defenses of mergers and anticompetitive conduct" in the EU, we're about to do exactly the contrary, in the name of "progress" - not joking.
"The right has too often fetishized economic analysis, as if economic experts in ivory towers can better manage the economy than economic experts in regulatory agencies" but are the latter still economists, just less theoretically inclined?
May 2, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Economics "is not a scientific tool; it is a tool of educated guesswork, one that depends upon various assumptions and caveats, all of which can and often is rendered moot by marketplace realities and “facts on the ground"" - if it's about ditching abstruse IO models, couldn't agree more 😊 of course
BIG BUT, fn 105 "Making antitrust law subservient to “the economics” is no different than making your COVID-19 policy subservient to “the science.” The pandemic gave us the painful reminder that rule by expert is arbitrary, capricious, and often erroneous" rather, no IO fetishism - look beyond it
"Soviet housing projects were “efficient.” But the conservative pursues beauty, excellence, and virtue, not mere efficiency" 😂
"The idea that we should tolerate greater market power within markets because it fosters greater innovation to disrupt that market gets things entirely backwards"
His economic take on innovation (yes he does, forget IO) is ☑️ : "Far from the “perennial gale of creative destruction,” this looks more like the “perennial lull” that Schumpeter warned against"
"Monopoly power in the legacy market can empower a firm to control the quantity and quality of innovation in emerging markets"
"an undue preoccupation with innovation—such as innovation at any cost, or so-called “permissionless innovation”—is a progressive impulse, not a conservative one" no, it's just nonsense.
"Antitrust law is not a panacea, but it is incredibly important. It is the only comprehensive area of law that governs how we structure our economy and protects the free market, and it concerns the greatest loci of power in our country outside the federal government"
"Further discussion and experience will undoubtedly lead to others, and it is my hope that a new generation of scholars, practitioners, and leaders will be inspired to take up the challenge"
