Many successful American businesses have been accused of anti-competitive practices. Drawing on 50 years of experience with U.S. antitrust laws, attorney and author Edwin S. Rockefeller sheds light on why lawmakers, bureaucrats, academics, and journalists use arbitrary and irrational laws and enforcement mechanisms to punish capitalists rather than promote competition. The Antitrust Religion argues that everything most people know about antitrust is wrong. The orthodox view is that antitrust was created to protect competition. But Rockefeller's account is strikingly different. He argues that antitrust in practice has often benefited, not the public, but specific businesses that wanted to take down their competitors. In cases ranging from early antitrust targets like Standard Oil to the more recent IBM and Microsoft cases, he reveals why some companies are punished for being winners in the market. Rockefeller vividly shows how antitrust has been transformed into a quasi-religious faith. He explains that this antitrust religion relies on economic theories that bestow a veneer of objectivity and credibility on law enforcement practices that actually rely on hunch and whim. On issues such as mergers and price fixing, Rockefeller thoroughly examines arbitrary antitrust laws that lead to ill-informed juries and bureaucratic abuse. He concludes that those laws also create a perverse incentive for entrepreneurs to hold down sales volume and avoid improvements in price, quality, and service. Otherwise, such entrepreneurs could become the next targets of the antitrust priests. The Antitrust Religion will greatly assist business professionals, journalists, policymakers, professors, judges, and all others interested in government regulation of business in understanding how our antitrust laws actually work.
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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Antitrust Law Questions That Need Answering,
This review is from: The Antitrust Religion (Hardcover)
The Antitrust Religion is an articulate, cogently reasoned set of fundamental questions about our antitrust law enforcement. While many will disagree with its extreme view that antitrust laws should be abolished, the questions Rockefeller raises are valid ones, deserving of thoughtful answer by those who still believe that antitrust law enforcement helps consumer welfare. More scholarly empirical studies would be useful to challenge some of the points Ed Rockefeller, a former FTC official and former Chair of the ABA Section of Antitrust Law, makes in this highly readable book. If you are serious about antitrust law, you need to read and think about this book.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An essential component of any college-level survey of antitrust law,
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Antitrust Religion (Hardcover)
Author Edwin Rockefeller has long been chairman of the Antitrust & Trade Regulation Report Advisory Board, so his analysis of competition law and business is an essential component of any college-level survey of antitrust law and business pursuits. College-level libraries strong in American history, business or law receive an in-depth case for the First Law of Government and the economic impact of antitrust actions.
Diane C. Donovan California Bookwatch
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Questions Worth Asking,
This review is from: The Antitrust Religion (Hardcover)
Like the author and prior reviewer, I've practiced antitrust law for years. I agree with the prior review: I disagree with some of the conclusions in the book but think that it raises several questions that should be discussed and usually are not. I've given it only 4 stars because I think some of the sections are repetitive and the tone could have been turned down a couple notches. The book makes a helpful contribution by raising fundamental questions that the members of the antitrust religion would be wise to consider if they want to gather more converts, both in the US and abroad.
Note that this review was written during antitrust's holy week, the Spring Meeting.
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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs):
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antitrust believers, antitrust religion, antitrust faith, antitrust community, merger prevention, illegal monopolization, tying product, antitrust doctrines, antitrust statutes, merger enforcement, substantial market power, tying arrangements, tied product, antitrust decisions Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Supreme Court, Sherman Act, Clayton Act, Standard Oil, Justice Department, United States, Horizontal Merger Guidelines, Warren Court, Robinson-Patman Act, Theodore Roosevelt, Steel Credit Corp, Robert Bork, Justice Douglas, American Bar Association, Brown Shoe, Antitrust Section Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
antitrust believers, antitrust religion, antitrust faith, antitrust community, merger prevention, illegal monopolization, tying product, antitrust doctrines, antitrust statutes, merger enforcement, substantial market power, tying arrangements, tied product, antitrust decisions Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Supreme Court, Sherman Act, Clayton Act, Standard Oil, Justice Department, United States, Horizontal Merger Guidelines, Warren Court, Robinson-Patman Act, Theodore Roosevelt, Steel Credit Corp, Robert Bork, Justice Douglas, American Bar Association, Brown Shoe, Antitrust Section Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
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