On August 13, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order repealing Joe Biden’s July 2021 directive on “Promoting Competition in the American Economy.” That Biden-era order empowered Lina Khan at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Jonathan Kanter at the Department of Justice (DOJ) to expand government control over Read more…
The Justice Department’s recent approval of the $14 billion Hewlett Packard Enterprises (HPE)–Juniper Networks merger has fueled speculation of a rift within President Trump’s antitrust team. But as Norm Singleton explains, the differences are overstated: “The lawsuit to block HPE’s acquisition of Juniper was motivated by concerns that the acquisition Read more…
Shortly before leaving for the August district work period, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government advanced the FY2026 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill. One of its most notable provisions targets the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), cutting its budget and blocking Chair Lina Khan’s latest Read more…
In a new article for RealClearMarkets, Market Institute President Charles Sauer examines how the Trump administration’s new antitrust leadership team—Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Andrew Ferguson and Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division head Gail Slater—has shifted course from the Biden-era’s aggressive anti-merger stance. But while the shift away from Read more…
In a recent RealClearMarkets article, Market Institute Senior Fellow Norm Singleton warns that Lina Khan’s brand of aggressive antitrust enforcement isn’t going away—it’s just shifting tactics and geography. While the Biden-era ideologues may be stepping back, their playbook is alive and well under Trump’s appointees and in progressive statehouses across Read more…
Google, once a Stanford science project and now one of the world’s most successful tech companies, represents the best of American innovation. But instead of celebrating that success, politicians from both parties are treating it like a crime. In a recent RealClearMarkets article, Charles Sauer explains how the Biden Administration Read more…
In a rare moment of restraint, the Federal Trade Commission recently withdrew its lawsuit against PepsiCo for allegedly violating the Robinson-Patman Act (RPA)—a dusty New Deal-era law that punishes companies for giving discounts to large retailers. But while the dismissal is a win for free-market principles, some troubling signals suggest Read more…
Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson is calling out one of the greatest threats to American innovation coming from abroad: the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). In a recent piece for RealClearMarkets, Market Institute President Charles Sauer details Ferguson’s critique of the DMA, delivered at the International Competitors Network Read more…
The Federal Trade Commission’s long-running antitrust crusade against Meta—parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp—is not just misguided, it’s a threat to innovation and consumer choice. As Market Institute Norm Singleton writes in The Libertarian Republic, this bipartisan effort to break up Meta is based more on ideological hostility toward Read more…
Over at RealClearMarkets, Market Institute Senior Fellow Norm Singleton exposes how the Federal Trade Commission continues to define “relevant markets” in ways that defy reality—and logic. In one of the most telling examples of regulatory overreach, the FTC under both Lina Khan and her successor Andrew Ferguson has relied on Read more…