Monday, January 28, 2019

The Conservative Case for Antitrust

The thread opposing monopolies and concentrations of power runs from to the founding fathers to the present day.

James Madison believed in economic rights; and in an essay, he warned against "Arbitrary restrictions, exemptions and monopolies." The Maryland State Constitution in 1776 declared, "Monopolies are odious, contrary to the spirit of free government and ought not to be suffered." When the Continental Congress issued its Declaration of Independence from Britain, they resented the monopoly of the East India Company.

A few years later in 1900, antimonopoly policy was a firm part of the Republican platform when Republican William McKinley faced William Jennings Bryan, "We condemn all conspiracies and combinations intended to restrict business, to create monopolies, to limit production. or to control prices; and favor such legislation as will effectively restrain and prevent all such abuses, protect and promote competition and secure the rights of producers, laborers, and all who are engaged in industry and commerce."

In the 1912 election Theodore Roosevelt ran for President as a progressive on a trust-busting platform arguing for the need to control corporate power and end monopolies.

Markets have shifted to monopolies and oligopolies when it comes to selling goods, but it is just as bad when you look at the power of companies as buyers.

Friedrich Hayek argued against government monopolies "Knowledge problem" as an insurmountable barrier to central planning.

Jonathan Tepper is a senior fellow at The American Conservative, founder of Variant Perception, a macroeconomic research company, and co-author of The Myth of Capitalism: Monopolies and the Death of Competition.

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-conservative-case-for-antitrust-jonathan-tepper/

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