In a recent RealClearMarkets article, Charles Sauer uses a football analogy to capture what’s at stake in today’s antitrust debates. Football works because the rules are known in advance and applied consistently. When referees invent new rules mid-game, the integrity of competition collapses. Markets operate the same way. Sauer argues Read more…
In a recent RealClearMarkets column, Charles Sauer explains why Netflix’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. should be approved—and why it highlights the failure of outdated antitrust thinking in a fast-moving entertainment market. Netflix appears poised to acquire Warner Bros. despite a hostile takeover bid from Paramount Pictures. While the deal Read more…
In a recent RealClearMarkets column, Norm Singleton pushes back against the familiar panic that accompanies every major technological shift in the movie industry—this time aimed at streaming and Netflix’s proposed acquisition of Warner Brothers. Singleton reminds readers that resistance to innovation is nothing new. From the earliest days of sound Read more…
As Charles Sauer explains in a recent column for RealClearMarkets, the backlash against Netflix’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. reflects today’s reflexive antitrust panic—not the realities of competition in the entertainment marketplace. Critics on both the left and right have rushed to portray the deal as a threat to consumers, Read more…
iRobot, the Massachusetts-based maker of the Roomba robot vacuum, has filed for bankruptcy. While competition from newer, innovative rivals played a role, iRobot’s collapse cannot be understood without examining the role of regulators and politicians who blocked the company’s best chance to survive. As Market Institute Senior Fellow Norm Singleton Read more…
Rising beef prices have become a political talking point, but blaming “Big Beef” won’t make groceries cheaper. As Charles Sauer explains in a recent article originally published in RealClearMarkets, government crackdowns on meatpackers risk repeating the same antitrust mistakes that have already failed to lower prices elsewhere in the economy. Read more…
New York City voters didn’t just elect a self-proclaimed democratic socialist mayor — they handed the keys to the transition team to someone whose regulatory philosophy has already reshaped Washington: former Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan. During her tenure, Khan oversaw what CNBC’s Jim Cramer called a “one Read more…
In a recent RealClearMarkets column, Market Institute Senior Fellow Norm Singleton draws a sharp historical parallel between the government’s decades-long antitrust crusade against IBM and today’s efforts to “break up” Google. In 1969, the U.S. government sued International Business Machines (IBM), then the world’s largest corporation, for antitrust violations. The Read more…
One of the reasons Amazon remains the world’s leading online retailer is its Amazon Prime service. Created in 2005, Prime began by offering free two-day shipping. Today, it has approximately 240 million members worldwide—180 million of them in the U.S.—who enjoy free one- or same-day delivery, access to streaming music Read more…
In a recent article for RealClearMarkets, Market Institute Senior Fellow Norm Singleton examines the firings of Roger Alford, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust, and William Rinner, the Antitrust Department’s head of merger enforcement. Their dismissal in July highlights a deepening divide over how the Trump administration should approach antitrust Read more…