Is This the Administration’s Second Term Antitrust Reform Agenda?

By Richard B. Steuer (New York)

Early this year the head of the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice wrote to the Congressionally-convened Antitrust Modernization Commission with suggestions for topics for the Commission to study. The letter is only three and a half pages long, but provides some revealing insights into the philosophy behind the Administration’s likely agenda for antitrust reform over the next four years. (The letter is available on the Justice Department’s website, at http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/public/207122.htm).

The letter makes nine points:

1. A panel of experts, including some who do not make a living in antitrust, should evaluate the effects of antitrust enforcement on the economy.