Who’s Laughing Now?

“Germany will become totally dependent On Russian energy if it does not immediately change course,” President Donald J. Trump said at the United Nations in 2018. In response, the German delegation, which included the country’s foreign minister, Heiko Maas, laughed.” Report from The New York Times, July 22 We have got Putin where we want him. […]

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

If recollection serves, it was in 1969 that I was invited by a congressional antirust committee to share my views on conglomerates. International Telephone & Telegraph CEO Harold Geneen had built an $800 million company into a $6 billion conglomerate that owned rental-car company Avis, the Sheraton hotel chain, Hartford insurance and Continental Baking (Wonder […]

Good News: Antitrust Policy Saved From Years Of Neglect

Antitrust policy has been roused from its long sleep by the President. Two cheers from those who believe that markets can be relied upon to allocate the nation’s resources more efficiently than can the government, but only if those markets are competitive. The third cheer is being held until we are certain that overzealous enforcement […]

Biden Revives Vigorous Antitrust Policy

President Biden has it right. We need not agree with the details of Biden’s Executive Order on Promoting Competition to applaud its broad thrust. Something had to be done to inject old-fashioned vigour into antitrust policy, while retaining the innovative dynamism that has brought us so many products and services we have come to love, […]

Trump has a great foreign policy record. Why isn’t he talking about it?

Voting has begun, unfortunately before a serious discussion of foreign policy. Which is rather odd, since Trump, never one to conceal his victories from view, has a powerful story to tell. He might begin by reminding voters of his ability to make tough decisions. He ordered the execution of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and […]

Big Tech Girds Its Loins For a Big Fight

Elizabeth Warren is only the noisiest of the politicians calling for the dismemberment of what has come to be called Big Tech. In the good old days, when Teddy Roosevelt brandished his big stick at J.P. Morgan’s railroad trust, and had his attorney general file a suit to bust that trust, the financier visited the […]

The Fangs: What Is To Be Done?

Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google have disrupted the way we communicate, shop, watch movies and other “content’, and search the world’s information. With the exception of Netflix, which competes vigorously with other content providers and bedroom activities, the so-called FANGs have accumulated what Americans call unacceptable market power and Europeans call a dominant position. Facebook […]

De-Fanging the FANGs

Thank you for coming. It is always a pleasure to work with Harold Furchtgott-Roth[1], for whose distinguished public service we are indebted and who has maintained Hudson’s attitude towards these sessions: they are a forum for trying out ideas, that might well be proved wrong. It is the right to be proved wrong that we […]

Jay Powell Is His Own Man

The Fed chairman stands up to President Trump at Jackson Hole. They came, they dined, they wined (some whined at the strong dollar), they talked, they posed for photo ops, many in casual clothes unused since last year, they left. This weekend, central bankers from around the world descended on Jackson Hole, Wyoming to attend […]

The Big Bank Regulatory Reform Isn’t What You Think

The pendulum swings. It swung in the direction of super-tight regulation of the nation’s banks during, and immediately after, the financial crisis of 2008. And now it is swinging in the opposite direction. President Trump and congressional Republicans, along with a handful of Democrats, have pushed through legislation that will ease the regulatory burdens imposed […]