Publications: Julie Carlson

The recent concerns antitrust enforcers have raised about private equity—that it creates market power, facilitates unfair methods of competition, and undermines the competitive viability of acquired firms—are largely unfounded.

Competition authorities in the United Kingdom fear Microsoft will keep Call of Duty off Sony PlayStations if it acquires the game’s publisher. But that’s not what happened when it bought the developer of Minecraft, and there’s no reason to believe this time will be different.

The Biden-Harris Economic Blueprint, released on September 9, perpetuates long-dispelled myths about industrial concentration.

Amazon has combined three things that business strategists said could not be done—low costs, high quality, and customization. “Amazoning” health care that way would be a good thing.

The FTC filed a complaint in federal district court seeking to block Meta’s acquisition of the virtual reality start-up, Within Unlimited. The complaint is seriously flawed, but if successful, its challenge to the acquisition could deliver a serious blow to the nascent VR app market.

Antitrust populists are crusading against the market advantages of large brick and mortar retailers, such as Walmart, and large online retailers like Amazon. But those advantages largely flow to consumers—particularly low-income ones.

Lina Khan has championed a more aggressive, populist approach to antitrust enforcement, which would have posed real risks to innovation and economic growth. Yet, at her one-year anniversary as chair, the antitrust revival she promised appears to have fizzled.

By withdrawing the 2019 statement in its entirety, SEP-holders have only the guidance provided by the FTC’s prior enforcement actions—which is to say they have no guidance at all.

Not only is more aggressive antitrust enforcement likely to be ineffective at combatting inflation, some economists have argued that it may even make inflation worse.

The OAMA threatens the vibrancy of the app ecosystem. The Senate should not attempt to fix an app ecosystem that is not broken.