Joe Biden’s appointment of Lina Khan as chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was a signal of seriousness about fighting corporate concentration. But how successful have the trustbusters been?
trustbusters mean to make their policing presence felt. Lawyers, bankers and financiers now “recognise that there are cops on the beat…that we’re vigorously looking to protect the American public from illegal mergers,” says Lina Khan, chair of the Federal Trade Commission , which enforces consumer-protection and competition laws.two years ago this month , is a good or bad cop is a matter of fierce debate. Progressives applaud the greater scrutiny she has brought to companies’ conduct.
How successful have they been? They have certainly reframed public thinking about trustbusting. “Six years ago, if you didn’t buy into the consumer-welfare standard, you weren’t a serious person. Now that’s completely gone,” says Luigi Zingales, a finance professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
High-profile lawsuits are still winding their way through the courts, including two against Google . That one will be heard by a jury, instead of a judge, next year, in an effort to bring antitrust back to the people. “It’s been at least 50 years, if not longer, since we’ve done a case like this in front of a jury,” says Mr Kanter.
The administration’s mixed record reveals three things it missed as it set out to attack corporate concentration. First, there is a problem of competing goals. The court is “extraordinarily friendly to large corporate interest”, points out Nancy Rose of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, yet Mr Biden has not made it a priority to appoint judges with expertise in antitrust, pushing instead to diversify the bench by race and background.
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