Antitrust law’s presumptions cannot be isolated from prevailing economic theory
Evidence
The problems are difficult, and the law is not likely to meet them directly. [We do not] mean to suggest that the law must alone move within the confines of changing fashions in such theory. The law indeed can have a life of its own. But in this field of law more than any other, the general presumptions are of such a character that they cannot be readily isolated from the corresponding presumptions which dominate economic theory. We do suggest that in the future there may well be a recognition of the instability of the assumed foundation for some major antitrust doctrines. And this may lead to a re-evaluation of the scope and function of the antitrust laws. (p. 296) In this prescient final paragraph, Director and Levi laid a foundational neoliberal premise, which would develop into a more extreme form in the coming years: Antitrust law should utilize economic theory, and Director and Levi had in mind the special brand of economic theory they espoused-not the versions of imperfect competition theory espoused by the Cowles Commission or MIT (Mirowski 2002). — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1146
Categorization
- XREF: Foreshadows how law-and-economics later became standard in courts; echoes the reader’s interest in how the network influenced policy. — connects to: Economic theory and actual market practice cannot be radically separated in derivatives — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 1182; Antitrust regulation will not curb surveillance-capitalist extraction — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 420; Chicago antitrust reformers rejected per se illegality for exclusionary business practices — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1082 (+8 more)
- QUESTION: Did the later (1980s) antitrust revolution actually cite Director’s 1956 essay as its blueprint?
Broader Connections
- Neoliberal ideology narrowed antitrust enforcement to consumer prices alone
#exemplifies(0.80) — Andrew deWaard, Derivative Media, 461 - Monopoly power is not a market flaw but a market-driven outcome
#exemplifies(0.78) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 281 - Neoclassical competition theory masks real coercive market dynamics.
#corroborates(0.75) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 136