Antitrust Education Project

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[Paradoxically Speaking @BorkParadox]

https://t.co/QshoFHVwvK

And this administration continues—without changing a jot or a tittle—the antitrust guidelines of President Biden and his FTC Chair, Lina Khan. Self-styled “Khanservatives,” from Vice President J.D. Vance to Sen. Josh Hawley, style themselves as Teddy Roosevelt-era progressives. The Missouri senator proposes vast expansions to the FTC’s powers and budget, and outlawing any mergers or acquisitions by large companies.

And these are the conservatives who call other Republicans “RINOs”?

At the heart of Pence’s critique is the distinction between principles and populism.

He writes: “Populists follow urges, not principles. They would erode our commitment to the Constitution and abandon U.S. leadership in the world.” Pence reminds us of a 2022 Truth Social post by Donald Trump justifying “the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution” to overturn what Trump called the “massive fraud” of the 2020 election.

[Paradoxically Speaking @BorkParadox]

"This willingness of Bork and Davis to critique the Right from within gives it intellectual bite. The authors consistently return to their core ideas—that consumer welfare should be the lodestar of antitrust and that true conservatives should return to the rule of law and institutional restraint.

The New Paradox is a sharp, necessary critique of a new Right that is ceasing to be on the Right. The real danger to antitrust, they argue, is not overenforcement or underenforcement but the loss of principle itself."

https://t.co/Hlmu2bNFDs

[Antitrust Education Project @AntitrustEdu]

I recently taped an interview with Bruce Collins, a nationally-aired radio host, on antitrust issues. We discuss the state of antitrust, the drift toward what I call “conservative socialism,” and why my father's warnings about the erosion of neutral principles feel more urgent than ever. I argue that both the Biden and Trump administrations, in different ways, have moved antitrust enforcement away from objective standards and toward political discretion. And once that once that discipline goes, it's very hard to get back!https://t.co/fila54CyXL

[Paradoxically Speaking @BorkParadox]

"Donald Trump could have been the restorer of free markets. Instead, his administration is institutionalizing mechanisms that Washington can use to meddle in the operations of private business.

The president’s defenders will respond that the left has proven ruthless and lawless in its quest to maintain and expand power — a case only strengthened by the recent menacing comments by Democratic strategist James Carville. They argue that a Republican president who truly would be “the restorer of free markets” might be committing unilateral disarmament, a defeatist and largely nonsensical argument that ignores the extent to which the protection of free markets can be reinforced both legally and institutionally."

See our latest: https://t.co/tobpIpib83

[Antitrust Education Project @AntitrustEdu]

Trump's rampant interventionism provides a gift to the next progressive administration. https://t.co/trSCs11h6P

[Antitrust Education Project @AntitrustEdu]

Thanks to the WSJ for publishing my op-ed. https://t.co/OHXWPc9pRu

[Antitrust Education Project @AntitrustEdu]

12/12
Question:
Should antitrust enforcement ever be based on predicted future harms—or only on demonstrated effects?
Tell me where you land. 👇

[Antitrust Education Project @AntitrustEdu]

12/12
Question:
Should antitrust enforcement ever be based on predicted future harms—or only on demonstrated effects?
Tell me where you land. 👇

[Antitrust Education Project @AntitrustEdu]

1/12
Antitrust has a prediction problem.
Regulators increasingly claim they can foresee how markets will evolve—and intervene before harm occurs.
They can’t. 🧵

[Antitrust Education Project @AntitrustEdu]

11/12
Bottom line:
Antitrust doesn’t need more confidence in predicting the future.
It needs more humility about its limits.