anticompetitive – The News Desk

Chuck Schumer Doesn’t Know How Gas Prices Work

24Nov

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World

Chuck Schumer Doesn’t Know How Gas Prices Work

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and 22 Democratic senators recently wrote to Federal Trade Commission Chairman Lina Khan calling for an investigation into the proposed mergers between Exxon Mobil and Pioneer Natural Resources and Chevron and Hess. The letter argues that these mergers will enable “anticompetitive coordination in the industry” and raise U.S. gasoline prices. The letter, however, is based on dubious economic and legal logic and spurious historical analysis. It’s a mischaracterization of how the oil-and-gas industry operates. A fair assessment of the proposed mergers and the fossil-fuel market doesn’t reveal a firm legal and economic basis to initiate antitrust enforcement proceedings against these deals. If the senators really want a competitive energy market that suppl...

Home Sellers Take On the Realtors Cartel

The 1.5 million-member National Association of Realtors spent $81.7 million on political lobbying in 2022, more than any other business group. Behind the teachers unions, it ranks as the most powerful special interest in the country. Though it claims to help consumers, it is a cartel that seeks primarily to enrich its members by expanding government control over middle-class Americans’ largest source of wealth: their homes.Consider Burnett v. NAR, a federal class-action suit that Missouri home sellers have brought against the association. The case, which went to trial last week, presents an existential threat to the cartel. If the plaintiffs prevail, home buyers and sellers could save $120 billion in fees each year. Half of the country’s real-estate agents who work as buyer brokers might ...

IBM, Microsoft and Big Tech Antitrust Folly

The continuing trial of Google, along with lawsuits against Amazon and Meta, have brought antitrust back into the public eye. These suits recall the 1969 case against IBM and the 1998 case against Microsoft, the great antitrust battles of the latter half of the 20th century.Supporters of aggressive antitrust enforcement think that only antitrust suits prevented IBM from commandeering the personal-computer market and Microsoft from taking over the internet. But that’s an urban legend.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8