Antitrust Bill of Rights (7)

[charles mueller <cmueller@metrolink.net>]

          A sure-fire way to kill a country's antimonopoly policy is to make
  it dependent on professional economic opinion.  The U.S., for example, has
  been on such a policy course for the past 2 decades and the result has been
  a disaster.  Economists, as befits their profession, are devout maximizers
  of their personal incomes.  Monopoly firms tend to have a lot of
  money--which they quite sensibly use to buy whatever body of "expert"
  opinion it takes to maintain their monopolies.  When economic theory is made
  the arbiter of antimonopoly policy, professional economic opinion promptly
  promptly undergoes a massive shift to the right, becoming overwhelmingly
  pro-monopoly--the better to enrich the economists involved (and their
  monopoly clients).  A nation can have an effective antitrust program ONLY if
  it is willing to eliminate economic theory from the decision-making process.
  
          The following is #7 in my "model" Antitrust Bill of Rights.  Again,
  my journal (below) would like to publish a variety of such proposals.
  
  
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                                                  ANTITRUST   
                                              BILL OF RIGHTS
  
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         7.  The second most frequent barrier to an effective antimonopoly
  policy--after a country's national judiciary--is economic theory.  All such
  theory, except where it has been validated by experience and solid empirical
  (factual) studies, is mere speculation and has no place in proceedings
  before an antimonopoly tribunal.  Professional economists, understandably
  eager to be hired as "experts" by monopoly firms--and thus to maximize their
  personal incomes (fees of $5,000 per day are not unheard of)--almost
  invariably mirror the views of their paymasters, making it virtually
  impossible for a country to have a meaningful antimonopoly policy that
  depends on the support of expert economic opinion.  It is therefore the
  policy of this Nation that its business enterprises and its Citizens shall
  have the right to have their complaints under its antimonopoly laws
  evaluated solely on the basis of facts as determined in open court by their
  peers, not speculative theories. The role of  economists, whether by
  testimony or in written materials, shall be limited to the describing and
  offering of such scientifically-valid empirical investigations and shall in
  no case include their opinions on any material issue. 
  
                                        
          Charles Mueller, Editor
          ANTITRUST LAW & ECONOMICS REVIEW
          http://webpages.metrolink.net/~cmueller
  
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