Economic Analysis and Competition Policy Research

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Each semester at universities around the world, students in introductory economic classes are generally told the same stories. Perhaps to the surprise of some students who have met human beings, economists teach their classes that human beings are rational creatures who primarily seek to maximize their own utility in making choices. These students are also... Read More
Image: The DOJ sued RealPage for its information collection, processing, and rent recommendations to landlords. Photo by Sipa USA via AP Images.
In February 2023, Doha Mekki, the Principal Deputy AAG for Antitrust announced the withdrawal of the FTC-DOJ guidelines on information exchange. It had become painfully apparent that oligopolists had found exchanges of confidential business information to be an effective means of restraining competition without entering into overt conspiracies.  In December of that year, we published... Read More
Image: This week, the DOJ is expected to file its proposed remedy in the Google search case.
In August, Judge Mehta of the Federal District Court in Washington, D.C., concluded in a careful and detailed opinion that Google had a monopoly in both the internet search market and the associated text advertising market. Google was found to have abused its market power by engaging in exclusionary conduct, including paying large sums of... Read More
Image: The Washington Post has assembled a lineup of neoliberal pundits, including Eduardo Porter and Catherine Rampell.
Washington Post columnist Eduardo Porter, in his recent piece, “Corporations are not destroying America,” seems to be taking cues on economic policy from his colleague Catherine Rampell. To Porter’s credit, he, contra Rampell, seems to actually read the materials he’s writing about. Yet the entire piece is emblematic of columns favored by the Post: ones... Read More
The FTC is seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent two of the country’s largest supermarket chains, Kroger and Albertsons, from merging. The case was heard in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon, where U.S. District Judge Adrienne Nelson, a former Oregon Supreme Court justice, will soon render a verdict. The merger would... Read More
Just a few weeks shy of its one-year anniversary of the Federal Trade Commission’s landmark monopolization case against Amazon, the government and the world’s largest e-commerce marketplace await a crucial decision: Whether Judge John Chun will dismiss the case before it ever reaches trial.  Amazon’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit has been sitting in front... Read More
Professor Tim Wu, former White House advisor on antitrust, offered remedies following Judge Mehta’s decision in the U.S. Google Search case. He identified both Google’s revenue-sharing agreements that exclude competitors and its access to certain “choke points” as a basis for remedies. A divestment order of Chrome and the Android operating system was proposed, as well as an access remedy to Google’s browser, data and A.I. technologies. It is hard... Read More
College athletics are most definitely changing. For more than a century, the NCAA has maintained absolute control over the athletes’ labor market and restricted their pay to only a scholarship. But it appears that soon athletes will be paid a share of the revenue that college sports generate. This means that the expense report of... Read More
Image: At the remedies hearing, Google warned that judges should not be central planners.
On the fourteenth of August in the year 2024, The Sling’s humble scribe came into possession of a facsimile of a transcript meticulously typed up by a certain Court Reporter—by way of an avowed acquaintance of the loyal manicurist of said reporter—in the heart of that certain city renowned for its association with that certain... Read More
Image: Jerome Powell’s political independence is in doubt. Source: Carlos Barria/Reuters
Economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman took to the pages of the gray lady on August 13 to stress the importance of central bank independence. The piece was a response to recent comments from Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance, both of whom have argued that presidents should have a “say” in the Federal Reserve’s interest... Read More
Each semester at universities around the world, students in introductory economic classes are generally told the same stories. Perhaps to the surprise of some students who have met human beings, economists teach their classes that human beings are rational creatures who primarily seek to maximize their own utility in making choices. These students are also... Read More

In February 2023, Doha Mekki, the Principal Deputy AAG for Antitrust announced the withdrawal of the FTC-DOJ guidelines on information exchange. It had become painfully apparent that oligopolists had found exchanges of confidential business information to be an effective means of restraining competition without entering into overt conspiracies.  In December of that year, we published... Read More

Image: The DOJ sued RealPage for its information collection, processing, and rent recommendations to landlords. Photo by Sipa USA via AP Images.

In August, Judge Mehta of the Federal District Court in Washington, D.C., concluded in a careful and detailed opinion that Google had a monopoly in both the internet search market and the associated text advertising market. Google was found to have abused its market power by engaging in exclusionary conduct, including paying large sums of... Read More

Image: This week, the DOJ is expected to file its proposed remedy in the Google search case.

Washington Post columnist Eduardo Porter, in his recent piece, “Corporations are not destroying America,” seems to be taking cues on economic policy from his colleague Catherine Rampell. To Porter’s credit, he, contra Rampell, seems to actually read the materials he’s writing about. Yet the entire piece is emblematic of columns favored by the Post: ones... Read More

Image: The Washington Post has assembled a lineup of neoliberal pundits, including Eduardo Porter and Catherine Rampell.

The FTC is seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent two of the country’s largest supermarket chains, Kroger and Albertsons, from merging. The case was heard in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon, where U.S. District Judge Adrienne Nelson, a former Oregon Supreme Court justice, will soon render a verdict. The merger would... Read More

Professor Tim Wu, former White House advisor on antitrust, offered remedies following Judge Mehta’s decision in the U.S. Google Search case. He identified both Google’s revenue-sharing agreements that exclude competitors and its access to certain “choke points” as a basis for remedies. A divestment order of Chrome and the Android operating system was proposed, as well as an access remedy to Google’s browser, data and A.I. technologies. It is hard... Read More

On the fourteenth of August in the year 2024, The Sling’s humble scribe came into possession of a facsimile of a transcript meticulously typed up by a certain Court Reporter—by way of an avowed acquaintance of the loyal manicurist of said reporter—in the heart of that certain city renowned for its association with that certain... Read More

Image: At the remedies hearing, Google warned that judges should not be central planners.

Economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman took to the pages of the gray lady on August 13 to stress the importance of central bank independence. The piece was a response to recent comments from Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance, both of whom have argued that presidents should have a “say” in the Federal Reserve’s interest... Read More

Image: Jerome Powell’s political independence is in doubt. Source: Carlos Barria/Reuters

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