The Folklore of Unfairness
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Twelve Fallacies of the “Neo-Antitrust” Movement
TWELVE FALLACIES OF THE “NEO-ANTITRUST” MOVEMENT Seth B. Sacher John M. Yun Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University George Mason University Law & Economics Research Paper Series 19-12 This paper is available on the Social Science Research Network at ssrn.com/abstract=3369013 TWELVE FALLACIES OF THE “NEO-ANTITRUST” MOVEMENT Seth B. Sachera and John M. Yunb Antonin Scalia Law School George Mason University May 1, 2019 Abstract Antitrust enforcement is back in the spotlight with advocates from both the political left and the populist political right demanding fundamental competition policy changes. While there are differences among those calling for such changes, several common beliefs generally unite them. This includes a contention that the writings and interpretations of Robert Bork and the Chicago School of economics have led antitrust astray in a manner fundamentally inconsistent with the original intent of the Sherman Act. Further, they are united by a belief that recent empirical, economic studies indicate the economy is becoming overly concentrated, that market power has been increasing dramatically, that performance in many, if not most, markets has been deficient, and that too much profit is going to too few firms. In this article, we identify and detail twelve fallacies of what we call the “neo-antitrust movement” and their associated claims. At the heart of these fallacies is a fundamental misunderstanding of economics and the consumer welfare standard that has been at the heart of competition policy since at least the 1960s. Additionally, there is a heavy reliance on studies that, upon closer scrutiny, do not support the positions of those who cite them. -
The Citizen-Consumer Hybrid: Ideological Tensions and the Case of Whole Foods Market
Theor Soc (2008) 37:229–270 DOI 10.1007/s11186-007-9058-5 ARTICLE The citizen-consumer hybrid: ideological tensions and the case of Whole Foods Market Josée Johnston Published online: 30 December 2007 # Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2007 Abstract Ethical consumer discourse is organized around the idea that shopping, and particularly food shopping, is a way to create progressive social change. A key component of this discourse is the “citizen-consumer” hybrid, found in both activist and academic writing on ethical consumption. The hybrid concept implies a social practice –“voting with your dollar”–that can satisfy competing ideologies of consumerism (an idea rooted in individual self-interest) and citizenship (an ideal rooted in collective responsibility to a social and ecological commons). While a hopeful sign, this hybrid concept needs to be theoretically unpacked, and empirically explored. This article has two purposes. First, it is a theory-building project that unpacks the citizen-consumer concept, and investigates underlying ideological tensions and contradictions. The second purpose of the paper is to relate theory to an empirical case-study of the citizen-consumer in practice. Using the case-study of Whole Foods Market (WFM), a corporation frequently touted as an ethical market actor, I ask: (1) how does WFM frame the citizen-consumer hybrid, and (2) what ideological tensions between consumer and citizen ideals are present in the framing? Are both ideals coexisting and balanced in the citizen-consumer hybrid, or is this construct used to disguise underlying ideological inconsistencies? Rather than meeting the requirements of consumerism and citizenship equally, the case of WFM suggests that the citizen-consumer hybrid provides superficial attention to citizenship goals in order to serve three consumerist interests better: consumer choice, status distinction, and ecological cornucopianism. -
The Rule of Law & FTC: Thesis & Antithesis? Some Proposals
Volume 86 Issue 3 Dickinson Law Review - Volume 86, 1981-1982 3-1-1982 The Rule of Law & FTC: Thesis & Antithesis? Some Proposals John A. Maher Follow this and additional works at: https://ideas.dickinsonlaw.psu.edu/dlra Recommended Citation John A. Maher, The Rule of Law & FTC: Thesis & Antithesis? Some Proposals, 86 DICK. L. REV. 403 (1982). Available at: https://ideas.dickinsonlaw.psu.edu/dlra/vol86/iss3/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviews at Dickinson Law IDEAS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dickinson Law Review by an authorized editor of Dickinson Law IDEAS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Rule of Law & FTC: Thesis & Antithesis? Some Proposals John A. Maher* I. Introduction A. Recent Events December 17, 1980 is a remarkable date for those interested in either quality of government or, more particularly, evolution of the Federal Trade Commission's sense of the unfair.' On that day, the five Commissioners then in office2 purported to renounce Commis- sion reliance on what they apparently regarded as a non-exclusive substantive rule of decision concerning the content of their enabling 3 act's use of "unfair . .acts or practices." That renounced can be said to possess the cachet of Supreme Court approval by reason of a unanimous opinion in FTC.v. Sperry & Hutchinson Co.4 (S&H). * A.B. 1951, University of Notre Dame; LL.B. 1956, LL.M. (Trade Regulation) 1957, New York University; Professor, Dickinson School of Law. Professor Maher currently serves the Banking & Business Law Section of the Pennsylvania Bar Association as chairperson of its antitrust committee and as a member of its committee for reform and recodification of Penn- sylvania's corporation and partnership laws. -
George Mason Law Review 19Th Annual Antitrust Symposium: Antitrust in an Interconnected World
HENRY G. MANNE PROGRAM IN LAW & ECONOMICS STUDIES GEORGE MASON LAW REVIEW 19TH ANNUAL ANTITRUST SYMPOSIUM: ANTITRUST IN AN INTERCONNECTED WORLD FEBRUARY 18, 2016 WELCOME HENRY G. MANNE PROGRAM IN LAW & ECONOMICS STUDIES GEORGE MASON LAW REVIEW 19TH ANNUAL ANTITRUST SYMPOSIUM FEBRUARY 18, 2016, ARLINGTON, VA ABOUT US OUR PROGRAMS CONTENTS Since its inception in 1974, the THE MASON JUDICIAL EDUCATION PROGRAM is the nation’s Law & Economics Center has preeminent provider of high-quality, balanced judicial educational Agenda 2 played a critical role as a leader in seminars and conferences that focus on economics, finance, accounting, law and economics research and statistics, and scientific method. The LEC has been offering programs for Speaker Bios 6 education. The LEC recognizes judges since 1976. both the importance of timely, relevant, and unassailable research THE HENRY G. MANNE PROGRAM IN LAW & ECONOMICS STUDIES LEC Contact Info 19 on public policy issues as well as promotes law and economics scholarship by funding faculty research and the necessity of communicating hosting policy-relevant research roundtables and academic conferences. Upcoming Schedule 21 research findings to those who are directly shaping our country’s THE SEARLE CIVIL JUSTICE INSTITUTE is a public policy institute public policy discussions. With devoted to producing timely, analytically rigorous, and balanced research research divisions devoted to on important civil justice issues confronting our free enterprise system. large-scale empirical projects and top-quality legal policy analysis, THE MASON ATTORNEYS GENERAL EDUCATION PROGRAM offers and educational arms reaching courses that provide a broad-based understanding of economic and public out to judges, attorneys general, policy issues to state attorneys general and their staff attorneys. -
Amazon's Antitrust Paradox
LINA M. KHAN Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox abstract. Amazon is the titan of twenty-first century commerce. In addition to being a re- tailer, it is now a marketing platform, a delivery and logistics network, a payment service, a credit lender, an auction house, a major book publisher, a producer of television and films, a fashion designer, a hardware manufacturer, and a leading host of cloud server space. Although Amazon has clocked staggering growth, it generates meager profits, choosing to price below-cost and ex- pand widely instead. Through this strategy, the company has positioned itself at the center of e- commerce and now serves as essential infrastructure for a host of other businesses that depend upon it. Elements of the firm’s structure and conduct pose anticompetitive concerns—yet it has escaped antitrust scrutiny. This Note argues that the current framework in antitrust—specifically its pegging competi- tion to “consumer welfare,” defined as short-term price effects—is unequipped to capture the ar- chitecture of market power in the modern economy. We cannot cognize the potential harms to competition posed by Amazon’s dominance if we measure competition primarily through price and output. Specifically, current doctrine underappreciates the risk of predatory pricing and how integration across distinct business lines may prove anticompetitive. These concerns are height- ened in the context of online platforms for two reasons. First, the economics of platform markets create incentives for a company to pursue growth over profits, a strategy that investors have re- warded. Under these conditions, predatory pricing becomes highly rational—even as existing doctrine treats it as irrational and therefore implausible. -
Caspar Weinberger and the Reagan Defense Buildup
The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Dissertations Fall 12-2013 Direct Responsibility: Caspar Weinberger and the Reagan Defense Buildup Robert Howard Wieland University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations Part of the American Studies Commons, Military History Commons, Political History Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Wieland, Robert Howard, "Direct Responsibility: Caspar Weinberger and the Reagan Defense Buildup" (2013). Dissertations. 218. https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/218 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The University of Southern Mississippi DIRECT RESPONSIBILITY: CASPAR WEINBERGER AND THE REAGAN DEFENSE BUILDUP by Robert Howard Wieland Abstract of a Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School Of The University of Southern Mississippi In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2013 ABSTRACT DIRECT RESPONSIBILITY: CASPAR WEINBERGER AND THE REAGAN DEFENSE BUILDUP by Robert Howard Wieland December 2013 This dissertation explores the life of Caspar Weinberger and explains why President Reagan chose him for Secretary of Defense. Weinberger, not a defense technocrat, managed a massive defense buildup of 1.5 trillion dollars over a four year period. A biographical approach to Weinberger illuminates Reagan’s selection, for in many ways Weinberger harkens back to an earlier type of defense manager more akin to Elihu Root than Robert McNamara; more a man of letters than technocrat. -
A Tale of Two Movements: Consumer Protection in the U.S. from 1969 to 2010
University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons CUREJ - College Undergraduate Research Electronic Journal College of Arts and Sciences 5-2-2013 A Tale of Two Movements: Consumer Protection in the U.S. from 1969 to 2010 Diya Berger [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/curej Recommended Citation Berger, Diya, "A Tale of Two Movements: Consumer Protection in the U.S. from 1969 to 2010" 02 May 2013. CUREJ: College Undergraduate Research Electronic Journal, University of Pennsylvania, https://repository.upenn.edu/curej/168. This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/curej/168 For more information, please contact [email protected]. A Tale of Two Movements: Consumer Protection in the U.S. from 1969 to 2010 Abstract The passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 and subsequent establishment of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau marked an unexpected victory for consumers across America at the expense of the well-financed business lobby. Although classical social scientists, such as Mancur Olson, claim that consumer movements should fail to emerge due to the difficulty of providing public goods for large constituencies, consumer victories – like the passage of Dodd-Frank— have occurred in waves throughout the last century. In conducting this study, I thus sought to answer why it is that some consumer movements are able to push through consumer legislation while others fail. In order to answer this question, I conducted two cases studies, comparing Ralph Nader’s failed attempt to establish a Consumer Protection Agency in the 1970s with Elizabeth Warren’s successful push to create Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2010. -
Burn It Down! Anarchism, Activism, and the Vancouver Five, 1967–1985
Burn it Down! Anarchism, Activism, and the Vancouver Five, 1967–1985 by Eryk Martin M.A., University of Victoria, 2008 B.A. (Hons.), University of Victoria, 2006 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences © Eryk Martin 2016 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Spring 2016 Approval Name: Eryk Martin Degree: Doctor of Philosophy (History) Title: Burn it Down! Anarchism, Activism, and the Vancouver Five, 1967–1985 Examining Committee: Chair: Dimitris Krallis Associate Professor Mark Leier Senior Supervisor Professor Karen Ferguson Supervisor Professor Roxanne Panchasi Supervisor Associate Professor Lara Campbell Internal Examiner Professor Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Joan Sangster External Examiner Professor Gender and Women’s Studies Trent University Date Defended/Approved: January 15, 2016 ii Ethics Statement iii Abstract This dissertation investigates the experiences of five Canadian anarchists commonly knoWn as the Vancouver Five, Who came together in the early 1980s to destroy a BC Hydro power station in Qualicum Beach, bomb a Toronto factory that Was building parts for American cruise missiles, and assist in the firebombing of pornography stores in Vancouver. It uses these events in order to analyze the development and transformation of anarchist activism between 1967 and 1985. Focusing closely on anarchist ideas, tactics, and political projects, it explores the resurgence of anarchism as a vibrant form of leftWing activism in the late tWentieth century. In addressing the ideological basis and contested cultural meanings of armed struggle, it uncovers Why and how the Vancouver Five transformed themselves into an underground, clandestine force. -
301-309. Consumer Activism for Social Change A
Lightfoot, E. B. (2019). Consumer Activism for Social Change. Social Work, 64(4), 301-309. Consumer Activism for Social Change Abstract Consumer activism, or activism through participating in the market such as through boycotts or ethical shopping, is the most common form of political action in the United States aside from voting. While consumer activism was a popular macro practice social work intervention by social work pioneers and has been an important part of many social change movements, it is rarely discussed formally in the field of social work today. This article provides an overview of consumer activism as a social work intervention, describes historical and twenty-first century examples of consumer activism, discusses the effectiveness of consumer activism, and discusses the strengths and challenges of consumer activism for social workers who engage in it either professionally or personally. This is the unedited Author’s Copy. The published article is: Lightfoot, E. B. (2019). Consumer Activism for Social Change. Social Work, 64(4), 301-309. Lightfoot, E. B. (2019). Consumer Activism for Social Change. Social Work, 64(4), 301-309. Consumer activism is activism taken by consumers through participating in the market. This can involve activities such as choosing to shop for only fair-trade products or boycotting a company because of its labor practices. Consumer activism has a long history in the United States (US), and more than half of US citizens have participated in a form of consumer activism in their lives, with more than a third participating in the past year (Keeter, Zukin, Zndolina & Jenkins, 2002). Aside from voting, consumer activism is the most common way that citizens engage in political participation and is far more common than other types of political engagement, such as contacting legislators, fundraising for charity, taking part in a protest or volunteering for a candidate. -
Competition Agencies, Independence, and the Political Process
Unclassified DAF/COMP/WD(2014)86 Organisation de Coopération et de Développement Économiques Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development 27-Nov-2014 ___________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________ English - Or. English DIRECTORATE FOR FINANCIAL AND ENTERPRISE AFFAIRS COMPETITION COMMITTEE Unclassified DAF/COMP/WD(2014)86 COMPETITION AGENCIES, INDEPENDENCE, AND THE POLITICAL PROCESS -- Chapter by William Kovacic (George Washington University, United States) -- 17-18 December 2014 This chapter by William Kovacic (George Washington University, United States) was submitted as background material for the Roundtable on Changes in Institutional Design of Competition Authorities which will take place at the 122nd meeting of the OECD Competition Committee on 17-18 December 2014. It is an extract from Competition Policy and the Economic Approach, edited by Josef Drexl, Wolfgang Kerber and Rupprecht Podszun. Published by Edward Elgar, 2011. The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of the Organisation or of the governments of its member countries. More documents related to this discussion can be found at http://www.oecd.org/daf/competition/changes-in- competition-institutional-design.htm. This document is available as a PDF only English JT03367265 Complete document available on OLIS in its original format - This document and any map included herein are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of Or international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area. English DAF/COMP/WD(2014)86 2 Graham HD:Users:Graham:Public:GRAHAM'S IMAC JOBS:12764 - EE - DREXL:M2555 - DREXL PRINT 16. Competition agencies, independence, and the political process William E. -
ELECTORAL VOTES for PRESIDENT and VICE PRESIDENT Ø902¿ 69 77 50 69 34 132 132 Total Total 21 10 21 10 21 Va
¿901¿ ELECTORAL VOTES FOR PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT ELECTORAL VOTES FOR PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT 901 ELECTION FOR THE FIRST TERM, 1789±1793 GEORGE WASHINGTON, President; JOHN ADAMS, Vice President Name of candidate Conn. Del. Ga. Md. Mass. N.H. N.J. Pa. S.C. Va. Total George Washington, Esq ................................................................................................... 7 3 5 6 10 5 6 10 7 10 69 John Adams, Esq ............................................................................................................... 5 ............ ............ ............ 10 5 1 8 ............ 5 34 Samuel Huntington, Esq ................................................................................................... 2 ............ ............ ............ ............ ............ ............ ............ ............ ............ 2 1027 John Jay, Esq ..................................................................................................................... ............ 3 ............ ............ ............ ............ 5 ............ ............ 1 9 John Hancock, Esq ............................................................................................................ ............ ............ ............ ............ ............ ............ ............ 2 1 1 4 Robert H. Harrison, Esq ................................................................................................... ............ ............ ............ 6 ............ ............ ............ ............ ............ ........... -
FTC Nominee Expected to Oppose Broad Privacy Rules
Portfolio Media. Inc. | 860 Broadway, 6th Floor | New York, NY 10003 | www.law360.com Phone: +1 646 783 7100 | Fax: +1 646 783 7161 | [email protected] FTC Nominee Expected To Oppose Broad Privacy Rules By Bibeka Shrestha Law360, New York (September 2, 2011) -- If confirmed, Federal Trade Commission nominee Maureen Ohlhausen would likely call for greater transparency about privacy practices but fight comprehensive restrictions on the collection and use of consumer information, according to privacy experts. Should the Senate greenlight President Barack Obama's pick, Ohlhausen would leave her partner position at Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP's privacy, data protection and cybersecurity practice to join the FTC's five-member board as its second Republican commissioner for a seven-year term starting Sept. 26. Ohlhausen would replace Republican Commissioner William Kovacic, who has served on the commission since January 2006. Experts say it would be surprising for the technology policy heavyweight to meekly sign on to FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz's privacy agenda, which seeks to set a minimum standard of conduct for companies across the board that collect personal information, rather than focusing on specific sectors like the financial industry. "As a general matter, I do not think that she would not support 'substantive' regulation — restrictions on what companies can collect and disclose or how they can use the information that they collect," said Andrew Smith, a Morrison & Foerster LLP partner who worked closely with Ohlhausen while at the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. Leibowitz has sought to move past the notice-and-choice mechanism espoused under the George W.