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…
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…