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• Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation (act of August 12, 1970: Section 3685, Title 39, United States Code)

Anti-Trust

Jerrold G. Van Cise

• Attorney, Cahill, Gordon, and Reindel in New York City

“For Whom the Antitrust Bell Tolls.” Harvard Business Review 56 (1978): 125–130.

Some economists content that “concentrated” industries (defined as those composed of a few dominant firms) are undesirable because they lead to socially harmful noncompetitive pricing and shared monopoly profits. These critics challenge any market structure which departs from the theoretical economic state of purity known as perfect competition.

Numerous economists recognize that perfect competition (where large numbers of buyers and sellers preclude control over price by any single economic participant) can exist only in theory. Apparently, however, the U.S. government disagrees. For its most recent antitrust crusade to stimulate “competition” is being sponsored by Attorney General Griffin Bell in the belief that concentration is inherently evil.

Specifically, the government's Antitrust Division is investigating whether it should be unlawful (and thus subject to civil suit or criminal prosecution) for those individual companies belonging to concentrated industries (such as steelmakers) to publicly announce proposed price changes. This represents the latest government attempt to extend the scope of the Sherman Antitrust Act.

Companies, of course, may choose either to fight or to cooperate with civil investigations. If they elect to resist, they could seek to sway court opinion with the assistance of economists who are antagonistic to government economic interference.

Those who cherish liberty detect a danger inherent in government encroachments on the freedom of producers to maintain control over deciding and announcing prices. An unhindered pricing mechanism is thus viewed as a central component of the capitalist system.

As with other examples of government behavior, a ludicrous degree of inconsistency prevails. If Washington sincerely strives to promote competition, why does it continue to burden small businesses with a myriad of regulations? Perhaps the government, the nation's largest monopoly, is suffering from schizophrenia.