Zuckerberg's opening statement was really good. The part about the expansive nature of the relevant competition here is so important:
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Geoffrey Manne
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President & Founder, . Former law prof. Focus on antitrust, telecom, regulation, privacy, data, IP, etc.
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I'm no expert, but I *think* we can safely conclude that stupid zoning laws impede housing construction: Santa Monica got 2 decades-worth of housing unit permits in 8 months. How? It accidentally abolished its zoning code. Paging and, well, everyone.
Great thread clearing up the confusion around the FTC’s Twitter demand letters. Tl;dr: These are not ordinary course demand letters. It’s hard to escape the conclusion they’re a politically motivated fishing expedition.
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I've looked at (and revised, even) dozens of consent orders. Douglas provides a standard description of why the FTC has consent orders and how enforces them through demand letters.
BUT THE DEMAND LETTERS TO TWITTER ARE NOT STANDARD. 
1/11 twitter.com/DouglasLFarrar…
1/11 twitter.com/DouglasLFarrar…You might ask yourself, "why the f*ck is a gov't bureaucrat designing Amazon's website at all?!"
politico.eu/article/eu-mar
"anti-trust," of course.
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What phrase signals that the person using it doesn't understand your field?
Example: "Computer error."
The mindset that produces this tweet is the problem.
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@elonmusk
In Europe, the bird will fly by our 
rules.
#DSA twitter.com/elonmusk/statu…It's really odd that she thinks this clip makes her case. How is he not describing competition and business negotiation? I fear I don't want to know how she thinks markets should alternatively function.
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Facebook is a case study in monopoly power: It harvests and monetizes our data, then uses it to spy on competitors—to copy, acquire, and kill rivals.
This destructive model makes it impossible for new companies to flourish—harming our democracy, small businesses, and consumers.
Wow. This is fantastic. The US should do the same.
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"The UK will introduce a new visa at the end of January that will give 5.4 million Hong Kong residents - a staggering 70% of the territory's population - the right to come and live in the UK, and eventually become citizens." bbc.com/news/world-asi
Well this looks like a really important article by
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Friedman on Lawless Surveillance lsolum.typepad.com/legaltheory/20
Arguing in favor of the policy outcome is one thing, but advocating for China's authoritarian approach to policymaking over an evidence-based, deliberative process because you like the outcome is as anti-democratic as it is anti-intellectual.
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Europe: “let’s discuss”, “don’t fret”, “let’s be principled” “we need to be evidence based” “more research is needed” etc etc
Meanwhile in China 
:
Tencent and Alibaba pledge to open up apps to competitors ft.com/content/5ca8e9
:
Tencent and Alibaba pledge to open up apps to competitors ft.com/content/5ca8e9"Barnes & Noble has a plan to open 30 stores in 2023, making the bookseller the leader in what’s being called a big-box revival."
An underappreciated - and appalling - aspect of this whole bullying of Bedoya affair is the apparent quid pro quo that was demanded for Warren's (&/or other senators?) support of Bedoya's confirmation: that he support Khan in taking down Facebook.
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Replying to @adamkovac
After Bedoya issued his statement, Dan Geldon (@dan_geldon) - Elizabeth Warren's former COS and now consultant to lefty groups - texts him:
"Your statement...is at odds with the representations you made to me about backing Lina on Facebook matters prior to your confirmation"
4/
Technical help needed!! I can’t find the setting in Zoom to fix this problem.
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Antitrust Lawsuit Orders Taylor Swift To Be Broken Up Into 10 Smaller Artists l8r.it/UaWE
Ten scholars weigh in on @AjitPaiFCC’s #NetNeutraility Order. bit.ly/2jdxThl
They are all great, but the comment by former Wheeler-era FCC chief economist, Tim Brennan, is stupendous.
The schizophrenia around WhatsApp being a potential competitor to Facebook, but Twitter, et al. not, reflects the poverty of an antitrust case built around removal of a potential competitor.
If you think the introduction of Threads increases competition, it's noteworthy that it won't do so in the EU. No definitive reason is given, but I think we can surmise it.
Chilling competition in the name of protecting competition — it's the EU way.
It’s amusing when reporters “discover” economics. Here’s one inventing the Peltzman effect.
Single industry? What industry would that be? The well-known "Data Processing, Device Manufacturing, Retail, Business Services & Social Media" industry?
Actually, wait — I'll take the implicit admission that none of these companies is a monopoly and just accept the assertion. twitter.com/HalSinger/stat
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I don't often agree with AOC, but this is an *excellent* speech.
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Make no mistake: @AOC's speech will travel.
It will mobilize and energize women, in particular, for whom Yoho’s language represents not a random mistake but the interior monologue of a political party that is led by a man who sounds just like Yoho trib.al/gVa3vFK
This was exactly my proposal. 5 minute / semester, in-person, independent studies for all students.
Hey! Wanna hear the dumbest health policy idea ever?:
Let's cut down the only thing in cigarettes people actually want — which is also the only *healthy* thing in cigarettes — and force them to consume way more of the shit in cigarettes that *kills* them in order to get it!
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SCOOP: The Biden administration is considering requiring tobacco companies to reduce the nicotine levels in all cigarettes sold in the U.S. to levels at which they are no longer addictive. wsj.com/articles/biden
WTAF. This is absolutely indefensible. Say what you will about the Rs, this is the Ds playing politics with our lives and livelihoods on a monstrous scale.
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Pelosi's stimulus package is 1100+ pages of pure unseriousness.
Industry loans conditioned on PERMANENT paid leave, $15 minimum wage, ban on buybacks, executive compensation cap, and industry emissions standards.
This is NOT the time to push a permanent political agenda.
The end of an era. @MOhlhausenFTC was a consistent voice of reason and humility at the . I’m saddened to see her leave (though we all knew it had to end sometime). Thank you, Maureen, for your fantastic work!
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Today marks my last day at the FTC. Over the past years, the Commission has won important victories which helped evolve antitrust in its most fundamental way; case by case – @FTC's @MOhlhausenFTC discusses a judge's view at @gwlaw Antitrust Salon
Harold Demsetz was one of the most important influences in my intellectual life &, if they lived it well, that of everyone who learned from him. My daughters don't know how lucky they were to spend even just a day w/ him (& Armen & HGM) 6 yrs ago. May his memory be a blessing.
It's not that the market works all the time. It's that at the margin, the market works better than the government. And for all but anarchists, on some margins the govt works better. twitter.com/ProfFionasm/st
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There is no better way for economists, policy advocates, and the like to honor Harold Demsetz' memory - and, incidentally, to be a minimally competent economist or policy advocate - than to commit to *not* committing the Nirvana fallacy.
This is key. There are lots of good reasons for self preferencing. The unsupported willingness to accept that it's per se anticompetitive has been the most infuriating policy move in antitrust in recent memory.
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Replying to @AuerDirk
Make no mistake: Consumers attribute poor shipping to Amazon. This creates a freerider problem, where FBMs can harm Amazon's reputation by providing poor shipping/return services.
Amazon thus needs to balance benefits of opening platform to FBMs vs protecting its reputation.
Kickstarting the economy with good union jobs runs into a snag:
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"The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have closed due to widespread worker shortages apparently linked to ongoing contract talks." abc7.com/port-of-los-an
Important to note re DC Cir. #NetNeutrality decision: In overturning the Order's preemption provision, the decision does NOT say there's no preemption. In fact, it's virtually inevitable that every state law will be preempted. The court just says that has to be done case-by-case.
I have no idea where anyone would get the idea that Neo-Brandeisians like some of those currently in antitrust leadership positions would want to deter all mergers with their new guidelines. No idea at all.
Correction: According to the Microsoft court (and every other court) illegal monopolization indeed requires consumer harm. twitter.com/Sally_Hubbard/
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Dogs and children both have an uncanny ability to hear junk food wrapping being opened from very far away. That is all.
Henry G. Manne would have been 90 today, and he is dearly missed. But his wisdom survives, and he has even left us w/ a remarkably prescient critique of today’s “hipster antitrust”: bit.ly/2wuTXgy
"What’s hip (in antitrust) today today should stay passé"
Tech companies are evil according to because, unlike "regular" companies I guess, they are crassly focused on three untenable, horrific things: profits, growth, and brand reputation.
Not the Onion. The actual Heritage Foundation. The mind boggles.
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The left doesn't just want to use #bigtech to deplatform dissident voices from social media
They want to boot them from the digital space ENTIRELY—including access to digital services like online banking
Former Facebook employee @KaraAFrederick lays out their REAL agenda:
For those who may have missed it, this response by Jonathan Jacobson to a question from Margarethe Vestager was, bar none, the greatest moment of the 2018 Spring Meeting. And his deadpan delivery was perfect.
RIP, David Crosby. Hard to pick a single great from his amazing body of work, but this, w/ Jerry Garcia, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Phil Lesh, Grace Slick, Graham Nash, Paul Kantner, et al. is tough to beat.
I'm curious how this "careful, bipartisan" process, allegedly aimed at collecting "a full range of views," manages to sideline one entire half of that range of views and not cite a single statement or piece of testimony expressing a view contrary to the report's assertions.
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The House #antitrust report just went live: bit.ly/36A4Spz
A great idea! I nominate Frank Easterbrook on The Limits of Antitrust.
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Query: What do @IpseDixitPod listeners think about a "classics" series, featuring scholars talking about important older papers? It seems like it could be fun & useful. And highlight the way similar Qs seem to arise is different forms. Among other things.
In some ways, this bit in the Epic Games v Apple decision reflects the depth of the conflict of visions at the heart of the antitrust enterprise. To be clear: this view is nuts.
Hot damn. @AjitPaiFCC FTW!
Thrilled that will be joining us as chief economist. Brian will greatly deepen our ability to understand how markets work and how policies are likely to affect them. And, if you've read his Substack, you know that his meme game is top-notch. Welcome Brian!! twitter.com/BrianCAlbrecht
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"Facebook isn't MySpace," they say, & "Google isn't Yahoo." "This time is different." Maybe. But unlikely. The 1 constant is the spectacular error (by regulators AND insiders, BTW) of predictions of the course of tech & bus. evolution across industries, times & bus. models.
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This Too Shall Pass: Unassailable Monopolies That Were, in Hindsight, Eminently Assailable truthonthemarket.com/2019/04/01/thi
Old enough to remember when "totalitarian behavior" actually meant something to the Heritage Foundation.
It's not that *data* is the price users pay to *platforms* for platform services; it's that *platform services* are the price *platforms* pay for data.
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Misconception #2: The common trope, “the price for ‘free’ services is your data,” is backward. Much of the data we share with platforms does not even exist (or is not known) separately from our interactions with these platforms. bit.ly/2Ma86nj
Thread on the 9th Circuit’s opinion vacating the District Court in FTC v. Qualcomm. cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opin 1/12
When & I are in violent agreement that enforcement was inappropriate, you know something is really wrong.
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Couldn't corroborate the testimony of DOJ Antitrust Division whistleblower, but 3 former attorneys from this admin said his claims fell in line with a pattern they had either observed first-hand or heard described by colleagues.
globalcompetitionreview.com/article/usa/12
The Antitrust Paradox by Robert Bork amazon.com/dp/1736089706/
GIF
read image description
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The average year of cases cited in the draft Merger Guidelines is 1982. The average year *weighted by number of cites* is 1975!
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The distribution of cases cited in the draft merger guidelines is telling. The only post-2020 case cited is NCAA v. Alston (to support the claim that agencies can consider harm to labor). Hard to imagine a court giving deference to guidance that ignores decades of precedent.
Friday afternoons in DC are known for two things: happy hours and news dumps.
So it was no shock that the FTC filed its change of course in a much ballyhooed effort to forestall a merger between Meta and Within (a VR company) while many were bound for bars. 🧵 1/12
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The FTC has filed an amended complaint in its case against Meta's proposed acquisition of Within, dropping some of the allegations that said Meta's Beat Sabre competes with Within's Supernatural. More TK.
My 14-y.o. nerd daughter sent this to me. She finds it hilarious. Yes, it absolutely is.
The gov’t of CA released its estimate of the costs/bens of the CCPA: bit.ly/2pqcyao
Bottom line costs: $55B up front & $16.5B over next 10 yrs
Bottom line benefits? Um, lots! Yeah, lots
Here’s why costs are actually much higher & benefits don’t come close. [thread]
Quick question: If you were running a consumer protection agency & looking to bring a "dark patterns" case about subscription cancelation processes, would you bring it against the companies that make it hardest & most costly, or, say, um, Amazon? 🧵 1/4 pudding.cool/2023/05/dark-p
Replying to
Portland. And don’t believe complaints about the weather. It rains 8 months but it’s pretty temperate and it’s mostly light rain. Used to never get hot but that’s changing. Still better than elsewhere. Food is best in country, outdoors unparalleled, etc., etc.
This seems importantly misguided. Thread:
The statement about Zoom & network effects is responding to is really a statement about network effects *as a barrier to entry*, not about network effects per se. Network effects simply don't work as a barrier here. 1/n twitter.com/ProfFionasm/st
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Delighted to announce that Sam Bowman (@s8mb), former Exec Director of the @ASI and Principal at Fingleton, will be joining ICLE (@LawEconCenter) in April as Director of Competition Policy!
The Colorado, et al. Google antitrust suit touches on so many things has been working on over the past decade-ish, it’s hard to know where to start. Fortunately, that means we’ve already got a lot of work addressing its claims. A few suggestions: 1/11
Join us Oct 26-27 in DC for our annual international competition conference, co-hosted by & , with confirmed speakers including Luigi Zingales, @ProfWrightGMU, Antonio Gomes, & @MOhlhausenFTC Register now!
As appropriate, the 9th Circuit reverses in FTC v. Qualcomm! No surprise to those of us who filed amicus briefs and weighed in against the district court's poor decision. See our series on the case here: truthonthemarket.com/symposia/ftc-v
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BREAKING .@Qualcomm wins appeal in @FTC #antitrust case.
Replying to
Well, I’m not sure that’s necessary. Don’t you think prices will adjust? And maybe people will have to move into less expensive houses, but I’m not sure why that wouldn’t be possible.
I'm devastated to learn of Jerry Ellig's () passing. Jerry was a tireless advocate for good governance & the role of econ in regulatory decisions. We're honored to publish one of his final writings tmrw for our symposium honoring . He will be missed.
The pro-consumer, global ramifications of today’s vote at the on @AjitPaiFCC’s open internet NPRM. By ’s
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The Internet Conduct Rule Must Die truthonthemarket.com/2017/05/18/the
A Conflict of Visions, illustrated in two Tweet replies:
Rep. Johnson: "What is to stop Apple App Store from charging 50%?"
"Also, please explain basic economics to us"
Rep. Scanlon: "I'd like to redirect your attention to antitrust law rather than fringe conspiracy theories"
Gold!!
This is at his absolute lyrical finest.
"...this weak person’s idea of a strong person, this chest-pounding advertisement of his own gnawing insecurities, this low-rent Lear raging on his Twitter-heath...."
And it just gets better from there.
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The lesson of Donald Trump's life is: There is no such thing as rock bottom. So, assume that the worst is yet to come. washingtonpost.com/opinions/no-on
Replying to
What the argument that WhatsApp and Instagram were potential competitors really shows is that entry is relatively easy and that FB continually faces competitive threats from all sides. This is a sign of a competitive market, not one that lends itself to antitrust actions.
Honored & thrilled to be giving the Hayek Lecture at / next week on an extremely timely topic:
"Who Moderates the Moderators? Holding Online Platforms Accountable Without Destroying the Internet."
Thanks to & Bruce Caldwell for inviting me!
Replying to
Presumably it can just be corrected in next year's budget, though, right? Maybe he can do it again, and it gets fixed again, ad infinitum. But then it's not really much different than the status quo. Still, very silly (but also - very creative by the governor!).
Kicking off the first panel at "Dynamic Competition and Online Platforms: Evaluating Recent Reports," & @UtrechtUni cohosted annual international competition policy conference in Paris
I'm no expert on Senate markup procedures, but this seems like a complete shit show. Maybe this is a half-baked bill rushed through for electioneering purposes but without substantive merit?
Sen. reportedly is interested in moving her American Innovation & Choice Online Act (AICOA) in the near future. Because "innovation" is in the bill's title, it’s worth exploring what likely effect it would have on startups. tl;dr: it wouldn't be good. 🧵 1/15
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On MSNBC this AM, Sen. Amy Klobuchar says the vote on the antitrust bills will be coming up "quite soon"
"YOU get a Jones Act!... And YOU get a Jones Act!..."
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A “Buy American” rule for infrastructure projects means we will get less infrastructure for our money.
Extremely shortsighted policy decision to score quick political points.
Stupidest immigration policy ever? twitter.com/sivavaid/statu
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This is simply untrue. I'd say it helps to have a law degree to understand that "best effort" and "cost" have actual, legal significance, (imperfectly) defined by contract. But it doesn't even require that; just some basic reading and analytical skills. 1/4
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AZ want to sell jabs at a “non-profit” price. Yet BoJo hails companies’ “greed”.
Can we put an end to the “at cost” and “best effort” nonsense? Just a sales pitch.
If you are not in this for the money, let everybody make the vaccine.
Big Tech scold: “Amazon must do more to monitor its platform to ensure there’s no counterfeiting, fraud, etc.!”
Also Big Tech scold: “How dare Amazon try to implement an effective mechanism for monitoring its platform!”
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Forget the FDA, EPA, and FTC: A new patent for blockchain technology reveals Amazon’s plans for its own private, for-profit regulatory regime based on unprecedented data collection from sellers, report @ZephyrTeachout and @ShaoulSussman: prospect.org/power/amazons-
Such horrible news. Bobby was a fantastic economist, an insightful scholar of antitrust, and a great human being. He was generous with his time with me, and I learned a great deal every time I spoke with him (usually for hours at a time). He will be missed.
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Robert Willig, a giant of antitrust economics, has passed away.
He is most famous for developing the concept of contestable markets (with Baumol & Panzar) and for validating the use of consumer surplus as a tool of welfare economics.
dof.princeton.edu/about/clerk-fa
Replying to
Most interesting in all of this is that AZ's agreement with the UK, alleged to be a big part of what is harming the EU, is actually most likely significantly *benefitting* the EU. Oh, the irony! (also from ) 4/4
Extremely thorough and informative thread on the questionable basis for FTC trying to stop Meta and MSFT mergers.
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The @FTC is suing to stop @Microsoft from acquiring Activision and @Meta from acquiring Within. This is based on this notion that acquisitions in the tech sector are anti-competitive. But they mostly aren’t. Let’s review the evidence. Thread. 1/
twitter.com/reckless/statu
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Today the Mercatus Center at George Mason University announces a series of prizes through its Emergent Ventures program for innovators working to combat COVID-19. These prizes are an effort to stimulate innovation in the face of a pandemic. Learn more: merct.us/2wV2cTs
Tweeting this again because it’s still really cool. Also, really, watch Citi in 2008. But don’t blink. (h/t & )
From
Jack Kosakowski
There's also no agreement on what "reasonable" means, what "free speech" means, what "public interest" means.... The CWS isn't an operative, doctrinal rule; it's a standard, to be given meaning primarily by courts through case-by-case adjudication.
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Replying to @matthewstoller
Kanter cites this twitter thread between @Sherman1890 @marklemley @elhauge showing there is no agreement on what the consumer welfare standard means even among respected antitrust thinkers. Says we need to get back to the statutory text. twitter.com/elhauge/status
Some thoughts on US v. Google and the DOJ's problematic focus on search *distribution* THREAD 1/12
It's so true. This whole article is an extended plea to crank up the machinery of antitrust to keep the future safe for a website ripped right out of the Internet of the 1990s. twitter.com/anjiecast/stat
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Some people came to Europe to watch the World Cup. I came to watch the Google Android decision press conference at a reasonable hour. Link is here, BTW: europa.eu/!gp78CQ
Now that's a syllabus!
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Here is the syllabus from Oliver Williamson's ECON 224, "The Economics of Institutions," Fall 1988. (I took it in 1989 but can only find this version.) zationsandmarkets.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/econ_2
We have a fantastic group of panelists lined up for our blog symposium on the & draft vertical merger guidelines. Be sure to follow (& visit truthonthemarket.com) on Feb 6 & 7 to see their posts!
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Announcing the TOTM Symposium on the 2020 Draft Joint Vertical Merger Guidelines truthonthemarket.com/2020/02/04/ann
This is an interesting paper by et al, but I wonder: if the firms exploiting political connections didn’t do so would it be worse for all firms? IOW, rent extractors gonna extract rents. Maybe those paying provide a positive externality >than the observed costs. 🧵1/
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"Connecting to Power: Political Connections, Innovation, and Firm Dynamics" onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.3982/EC
"market leaders are much more likely to be politically connected, but much less likely to innovate...."
I still can’t read Hal’s tweets, but it takes a massive amount of self-deception to think an ideologue, so I know I’m not missing anything.
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Replying to @HalSinger
I am not an ideologue Hal, but thank you for the insult. For every cross-industry price-HHI regression there is an equal and opposite sign cross-industry price-HHI regression. You would know this if you had paid any serious attention to the last 50 years of the IO literature.
The problem is, what this really means is:
"Our antitrust laws don't assume these 'monopolies' are *bad*, but I do. Clearly we need laws that enact my presumptions & don't demand such trivialities as proof."
Chicago should never succumb to this unrigorous, meritless approach.
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“Our antitrust laws cannot do anything against these types of monopolies,” says Proessor Luigi @zingales. “The world has changed, and inevitably the Chicago position has to change, too.” @kateconger
nytimes.com/2019/09/20/tec
Tune in tmrw 09/12 @ 12:25 ET for my panel on "Acquisitions by Dominant Firms" w/ at the Tech & Declining Economic Dynamism conf.
I'd echo Florian's "expect fireworks" but that hits a little too close to home just now
As if the weren't doing enough recently to deviate from basic norms of decency... There's no need to put legit firms on their heels, set them up as inveterate law breakers, & assume their aim is to screw consumers.
Being a bully is a choice.
ftc.gov/news-events/ne
A great story told in 3 simple graphs. It’s not new, but one can never get tired of seeing those graphs.
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Access to the internet changes the economy in ways that we couldn’t have anticipated & are hard to measure. For example, when fishermen in India gained access to cellphones, they could exchange demand info. Prices instantly stabilized and waste disappeared. Look at those graphs!
Looking forward to discussing the Google complaint this Friday with , Chris Sagers, and
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Tune in on Friday at 12:00 pm EDT for the @FedSoc panel on the DOJ’s much-anticipated lawsuit against Google. Learn what @geoffmanne has to say about the most high-profile antitrust challenge since the Microsoft case more than 20 years ago.
fedsoc.org/events/united-