Matthew Cole

Academic: all things law and economics. Mainly competition law and corporate law.

[Matthew Cole @DrMJCole]

European broadband is faster and cheaper. European mobile pricing is cheaper, but not faster. Europe has more fibre and better upload speeds.
It’s like Europe excels at Football, but sucks at ice hockey, so they are thinking about firing their football manager.

[Matthew Cole @DrMJCole]

There is a consistent logical fallacy whenever mergers are discussed in the press. @FT The EU lacks tech giants like Meta, Alphabet etc so Europe needs more mergers in telecoms. Except telecoms is where Europe totally outperforms the U.S.
https://t.co/f2Hpi3vdos

[Matthew Cole @DrMJCole]

@boys_nicholas @createstreets It’s nice to see it’s immaculately well kept. Do you have any idea who we have to thank for that?

[John Mark Newman @johnmarknewman]

Would JetBlue be viable today if its acquisition of Spirit had gone through? I'm not convinced. Great story from Leah Nylen @bloomberg.

[Ben Zaranko @BenZaranko]

This chart is bonkers.

I think there's two possible explanations for why the UK runs so far ahead of other European countries – neither of them good. And the annual April jump speaks to a wider issue. For more detail, see my column in this weekend's Observer (link below).

[Matthew Cole @DrMJCole]

@DanNeidle I don’t think I’d even start with a cut:
Drop Corp tax to 15% and increase VAT a few points to make it neutral. VAT is harder to avoid than corp tax.
Make VAT universal (no more worries about cake and biscuits), but lower (no net change).
Maybe get rid of property stamp duty?

[Matthew Cole @DrMJCole]

@ListerLawrence Part of the reason is because would have been illegal under EU law. Now, that we’ve left, it may well still breach a load of our international trade agreements.

[ASCOLA - Academic Society for Competition Law @ASCOLAcomp]

The reviews for the annual conference are in!

Thank you to everyone who submitted over 250 papers, abstracts or work-in-progress ideas. If you submitted to present, you should have received an email informing you of the outcome. If not, please contact [email protected].

[CLASF @CLScholarsForum]

Starting #45Clasf workshop on Competition Law in Transition, opening words by Barry Rodger & Eduardo Vera-Cruz, @ Faculdade De Direitto, Universidade de Lisboa

[Matthew Cole @DrMJCole]

@betweenthegaps @DanielJHannan @mattyglesias Please say you have a photo you can post?

[Alec Stapp @AlecStapp]

Government regulation in France:

Above a certain size, building new homes requires a licensed architect.

Outcome:

[Matthew Cole @DrMJCole]

@s8mb @VicctorianChad Absolutely, the problem isn’t new builds, that’s that everyone knows what’s built will be ugly.

[Matthew Cole @DrMJCole]

@klsbkkr @shelovesore Yes! This! ☝🏼Good Friday was introduced centuries later.

[Matthew Cole @DrMJCole]

@ProudofusUK ‘They were the first organised religious body in the world to formally condemn slavery.’
If you can find it consider the London Council 1102AD.
Don’t look for summaries, they add conditionality that doesn’t seem to exist in the original.

[Bear Grylls OBE @BearGrylls]

The older I get, the more I realise that the moments I felt closest to God were never on the summit. They were in the valley. Cold, broken, asking for help. That's where He meets us.

[ASCOLA - Academic Society for Competition Law @ASCOLAcomp]

It's the new year, and we know that one of your 2026 intentions is to join us in London in July!

To help make that resolution come true, submit your paper by 26 January.

For more info and to submit, go to the conference website: https://t.co/iYSmzPjRnf

[Mytho Britannia @MythoBritannia]

You can just retweet this account. You can just share images on the internet. You can recommend people follow it. It's all free.

[Tim Krieger @TimKriegerFR]

🚨 New paper!🚨

How can ordoliberalism help us navigate climate policy under deep uncertainty?

👉 Our article: Rules, Uncertainty, and Ordoliberalism: The Case of Climate Change (with Malte Dold)

📄 https://t.co/gF37xLkaUY

#ClimatePolicy #Ordoliberalism #Uncertainty

[Matthew Cole @DrMJCole]

Microsoft avoids EU fine after competition probe via @FT
https://t.co/9W9t5rWhiF

[Florian Ederer @florianederer]

One of the best antitrust papers now in the QJE:

Nearly half of US federal judges attended a crash course in economics at the Manne Institute.

This training had lasting effects: judges used more econ language, sided against regulators more often, and imposed harsher sentences.