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Showing results for:  “digital markets act”

A New Office of Technology Assessment: The Wrong Answer to the Wrong Question at the Wrong Time

Congress needs help understanding the fast moving world of technology. That help is not going to arise by reviving the Office of Technology Assessment (“OTA”), however. The OTA is an idea for another age, while the tweaks necessary to shore up the existing  technology resources available to Congress are relatively modest.  Although a new OTA ... A New Office of Technology Assessment: The Wrong Answer to the Wrong Question at the Wrong Time

Let’s (NOT) Stop All the Mergers: The Case for Letting the Agencies Do Their Jobs

Never let a crisis go to waste, or so they say. In the past two weeks, some of the same people who sought to stop mergers and acquisitions during the bull market took the opportunity of the COVID-19 pandemic and the new bear market to call to ban M&A. On Friday, April 24th, Rep. David ... Let’s (NOT) Stop All the Mergers: The Case for Letting the Agencies Do Their Jobs

Why lawyers?

This is the real topic of Kenneth Anderson’s brief and more modestly titled Do Lawyers and Law Professors Have Any Comparative Advantages in Opining on Financial Regulation Reform? A Brief Essay. Anderson wonders whether “the skills of the lawyer and law professor are, at most, those of scribe seeking clearly to write down policy positions ... Why lawyers?

The FTC Office of Patent Invalidation

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced late last month that it had “expanded its campaign against pharmaceutical manufacturers’ improper or inaccurate listing of patents in the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Orange Book, disputing junk patent listings for diabetes, weight loss, asthma, and COPD drugs, including Novo Nordisk Inc.’s blockbuster weight-loss drug, Ozempic.” Warning letters ... The FTC Office of Patent Invalidation

There is No Cure for Government Incompetence

The pandemic is serious. COVID-19 will overwhelm our hospitals. It might break our entire healthcare system. To keep the number of deaths in the low hundreds of thousands, a study from Imperial College London finds, we will have to shutter much of our economy for months. Small wonder the markets have lost a third of ... There is No Cure for Government Incompetence

Are the Roberts Court Antitrust Decisions Really Pro-Business?

I’m a bit late to the party on Jeffrey Rosen’s provocative article in the NY Times Magazine claiming that the Supreme Court is biased in favor of businesses. For readers not familiar with Rosen’s claim, the basic assertion is that: With their pro-business jurisprudence, the justices may be capturing an emerging spirit of agreement among ... Are the Roberts Court Antitrust Decisions Really Pro-Business?

Notes from the tea party caucus of corporate academia

Roberta Romano has just posted her paper, Regulating in the Dark. Here’s the abstract: Foundational financial legislation is typically adopted in the midst or aftermath of financial crises, when an informed understanding of the causes of the crisis is not yet available. Moreover, financial institutions operate in a dynamic environment of considerable uncertainty, such that ... Notes from the tea party caucus of corporate academia

Guiding a Post-Brexit UK Trade Liberalization Strategy

In the wake of its departure from the European Union, the United Kingdom will have the opportunity to enter into new free trade agreements (FTAs) with its international trading partners that lower existing tariff and non-tariff barriers. Achieving major welfare-enhancing reductions in trade restrictions will not be easy. Trade negotiations pose significant political sensitivities, such ... Guiding a Post-Brexit UK Trade Liberalization Strategy

The EU tightens the noose around Google

Here we go again.  The European Commission is after Google more formally than a few months ago (but not yet having issued a Statement of Objections). For background on the single-firm antitrust issues surrounding Google I modestly recommend my paper with Josh, Google and the Limits of Antitrust: The Case Against the Antitrust Case Against ... The EU tightens the noose around Google

Investigating Search Bias: Measuring Edelman & Lockwood’s Failure to Measure Bias in Search

Last week I linked to my new study on “search bias.”  At the time I noted I would have a few blog posts in the coming days discussing the study.  This is the first of those posts. A lot of the frenzy around Google turns on “search bias,” that is, instances when Google references its ... Investigating Search Bias: Measuring Edelman & Lockwood’s Failure to Measure Bias in Search

The Politicization of Antitrust Blog Symposium

The operative text of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 is a scant 100 words: Section 1: Every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations, is declared to be illegal. Every person who shall make any contract ... The Politicization of Antitrust Blog Symposium

Airgas and shareholder value

Bebchuk, Cohen and Wang have posted Staggered Boards and the Wealth of Shareholders: Evidence from a Natural Experiment.  Here’s the abstract: While staggered boards are known to be negatively correlated with firm valuation, such association might be due to staggered boards either bringing about lower firm value or merely being the product of the tendency ... Airgas and shareholder value