Abstract
We are in the midst of a new antitrust movement, but unlike those of earlier times, this one is an anti-antitrust movement. My objectives here are to place the current attack on antitrust in historical perspective, examine its origins, and comment on the arguments of the economist who has emerged as the most popular exponent of abolishing the antitrust law.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Standard Oil Company of New Jersey v. United States, 221 U. S. 1, 83 (1911).
M. Fainsod and L. Gordon, Government and the American Economy (New York: W. W. Norton & Co, Inc., 1941) p. 520
The president of the American Bankers Association said, “the way to progressive success in all commercial and industrial efforts is through constant introduction of new economies, but against the institution of these economies there is often the menace of the Sherman Law interpretations. ... Do not changing times call for a careful revision?” The New York Times, Section XX (October 12, 1930) p. 2. In 1931, the National Chamber of Commerce included among its four recommendations for recovery, “Modification of the antitrust laws to make clear agreements intended to relate production to consumption.” The New York Times (December 18, 1931) p. 15.
Fainsod and Gordon, Government, p. 569.
“The Economists Committee on Antitrust Policy,” American Economic Review (September 1932) p. 464.
R. Hofstadter, “What Happened to the Antitrust Movement?” in E. F. Cheit, ed., The Business Establishment (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1966) p. 116.
W. F. Mueller, The Celler-Kefauver Act: The First 27 Years, a study prepared for the use of the Subcommittee on Monopolies and Commercial Law of the Committee on the Judiciary. House of Representatives, 95th Congress, 2nd ses. (Washington, D. C.: U. S. Government Printing Office December 1978).
W. F. Mueller, “The ITT Settlement, a Deal with Justice?” Industrial Organization Review, 1, No. 1 (1973) pp. 67–86.
The International Telephone and Telegraph Company and Chile, Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate, by the Subcommittee on Multinational Corporations, June 21, 1973.
Mueller, “The ITT Settlement,” op. cit.
The following quotations are from the transcript prepared by the Impeachment Inquiry Staff of the House Judiciary Committee from conversations recorded by President Richard Nixon, commencing 3:30 P.M. April 19, 1971.
February 29, 1972, columnist Jack Anderson broke the famous Dita D. Beard (a former ITT employee) story that alleged the ITT settlement was tied to a $400,000 political contribution by ITT to the Republican party.
Mueller, “The ITT Settlement,” op. cit.
Hofstadter, “What Happened,” p. 116.
H. R. Lurie, “Mergers Under the Burger Court: An Anti-antitrust Bias and Its Implications,” Villanova Law Review (January 1978).
The National Chamber of Commerce financed a study of conglomerate mergers by Jesse M. Markham that was published as J. W. Markham, Conglomerate Enterprise and Public Policy, Division of Research, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University, Boston, 1973. A fascinating confidential memorandum was written for the Chamber by Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr., “Attack on American Free Enterprise,” August 23, 1971, shortly before his appointment to the Supreme Court. The memorandum was addressed to Eugene B. Syndor, Jr., Chairman, Education Committee, U. S. Chamber of Commerce. The memorandum is a blueprint for attacking, and perhaps silencing, those critical of any aspect of capitalism. It goes so far as to recommend that the Chamber establish a body of scholars that would review all textbooks in economics, sociology, and political science so as to encourage authors, publishers, and users to “return to a more rational balance.” He likewise perceived as the most “fundamental problem” the ideological imbalance of many faculties. “Correcting this is indeed a long-range and difficult project... This is a long road and not one for the faint hearted.” Ibid., pp. 16, 17 and 19.
G. C. Staple, “Free Market Cram Course for Judges, The Nation (January 26, 1980) p. 79.
“Reagan’s Think Tank” Dun’s Review (April 1981) pp. 110-114.
This is not to imply that scholars publishing in the Bell Journal have compromised their intellectual principles by doing so. To me, this is not a question of whether or not the Journal is tendentious. As a basic principle, scientific journals should not be sponsored by the very interests that are the subject of inquiry. To me this seems self-evident, although many economists evidently feel otherwise. And not too surprisingly, a previous editor of the Journal has, publicly, taken exception to my views.
Staple, “Free Markets,” p. 78. See also “Big Corporations Bankroll Seminars for U. S. Judges,” Washington Post (January 20, 1980) p. A 1.
Staple, “Free Markets,” p. 20.
Interview in The Village Voice, quoted by Federal Trade Commissioner Patricia P. Baily in a speech “Seventeenth Annual Symposium on Trade, Association Law and Practice,” February 25, 1981. Republican Commissioner Baily reportedly had the inside track to become Acting Chairman of the FTC until she gave this speech.
Ibid.
See for example, “New Thunder from Economists on the Left,” Business Week, (December 3, 1979) pp. 131-133: and “Antitrust Grows Unpopular,” Business Week (January 12, 1981) pp. 90-93.
L. C. Thurow, “Let’s Abolish the Antitrust Laws,” The New York Times, October 19, 1980. He had written a piece attacking Senator Kennedy’s Conglomerate Merger bill. “Bigness and Badness,” The New Republic (April 28, 1979) pp. 10-12.
Interview of L. C. Thurow by Gerald R. Rosen, “Abolish the Antitrust Laws,” Dun’s Review, February 1981, pp. 72-74.
L. C. Thurow, The Zero-Sum Society (New York: Basic Books, 1980).
R. L. Lampman, “Review of The Zero-Sum Society,” Journal of Economic Literature, 19, No. 1 (1981) pp. 91–92.
Thurow, The Zero-Sum Society, p. 146.
Ibid. p. 146.
Ibid. p. 146.
Ibid. p. 147.
Ibid. p. 147.
F. M. Scherer, “The Welfare Economics of Product Variety: An Application to the Ready-to-Eat Cereals Industry,” Journal of Industrial Economics, Dec. 1979, p 127.
Thurow, Zero-Sum, p. 147.
P. S. George and G. A. King, Consumer Demand for Food Commodities in the United States with Projections for 1980, Giannini Foundation Monograph No. 26 (Berkeley, Calif.: Experiment Station, University of California) March 1971) p. 51.
R. Parker and J. Connor, “Estimates of Consumer Loss Due to Monopoly in the U.S. Food-Manufacturing Industries,” American Journal of Agricultural Economics (November 1979) pp. 626-639.
Thurow, Zero-Sum, p. 147.
Ibid., p. 148 (emphasis added).
L. C. Thurow, Generating Inequality (New York: Basic Books, 1975) p. 147.
W. F. Mueller, “Conglomerates, a Nonindustry,” in W. A. Adams, ed., The Structure of American Industry (New York: MacMillan, 1977) pp. 461–467.
See for example, Merrill Brown, “Backstage with Big Business,” The Washington Post, February 1, 1981, pp. F1 and F4, and “Litton Evidence Alleging AT&T Coerced IBM Will Be Permitted at Antitrust Trial,” Wall Street Journal, Feb. 9, 1981, p. 5.
Thurow, Zero-Sum, p. 148.
See for example G. W. Brock, The U. S. Computer Industry (Cambridge, Mass.: Ballinger, 1975).
Thurow, “Abolish the Antitrust Laws,” Dun’s Review (February 1981) p. 72.
Ibid., p. 73.
Ibid.
Thurow, Zero-Sum, p. 149.
Ibid., p. 150.
Ibid.
Thurow, “Abolish,” p. 72.
Ibid.
U. S. v. Columbia Steel Co., 344 U. S. 495 (1948).
Fortune (March 26, 1979) p. 91.
A. C. Hoffman, “Trends in the Food Industries and Their Relationship to Agriculture,” Farm Foundation, Chicago, November 11, 1962, p. 2.
G. W. Stocking, “Saving Free Enterprise from Its Friends,” Southern Economic Review (April 1953) pp. 431-44.
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1983 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mueller, W.F. (1983). The Anti-Antitrust Movement. In: Craven, J.V. (eds) Industrial Organization, Antitrust, and Public Policy. Middlebury Conference Series on Economic Issues. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1874-5_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1874-5_2
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-017-1876-9
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-1874-5
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive