The Federal Trade Commission under Chair Andrew Ferguson has surprised many by continuing its predecessor’s emphasis on protecting labor markets. Randy Kim writes that while this is a welcome development, it will do little to help workers if President Donald Trump does not also continue his predecessor’s whole-of-government approach. Early indications suggest he will not.

COMMENTARY

Would Content Collusion Among Social Media Companies Be Such a Bad thing?

Mark MacCarthy writes that the case law supports Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson’s charge that collaboration by social media companies on content moderation practices would be anticompetitive collusion. However, the author argues that open and transparent cooperation might actually benefit a troubled internet, and Congress should consider carving out a content-neutral antitrust exemption for platforms in the way it has in the past for broadcast networks.

RESEARCH

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A New Capitalisn’t Episode

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LATEST

Antitrust from Trump to Biden to Trump

The new Trump administration’s antitrust leaders are unexpectedly maintaining the Biden administration’s enforcement priorities, including the 2023 Merger Guidelines. Eric Posner explains why this...

What Happens When Billionaires Control the News You Read

Utsav Gandhi explores how billionaire media owners, from Musk to Bezos, are influencing newsrooms, altering editorial policies, and reshaping the future of press freedom...

The False Crisis Pushing Delaware to Surrender Shareholder Rights

Delaware lawmakers are being pressured to pass SB 21, a bill that would weaken shareholder protections and reduce judicial oversight of corporations. Alan Jagolinzer,...

New Research Shows the Revolving Door Costs Taxpayers Billions

New research by Logan Emery and Mara Faccio systematically maps the movement of former regulators into the private sector and assesses its impact on...

Teaching Bezos a Lesson in Free Markets

Luigi Zingales invites guest contributors to the Washington Post’s op-ed pages to boycott the opinion section in response to the recent decision by the...

READING LISTS

Americans spend significantly more on health care than any other country. Why? Answers to this question range from hospital monopolies to perverse incentives to opaque pricing to medical licensing to pharmaceutical firms abusing IP practices to “creeping consolidation.” Why is the US health care system so broken? And what can antirust do about it? Catch-up on our coverage of antitrust and the US health care system.

Can the FTC’s PBM Complaint Create a Competitive Pharmaceutical Marketplace?

Fiona Scott Morton reviews the merits of the Federal Trade Commission’s complaint against the three largest pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) for suppressing competition in pharmaceutical markets. Although the complaint’s alleged harms are narrow, it is a welcome start that promises to shed light on the PBM’s expansive anticompetitive practices and ultimately lower drug prices for Americans.

How Has the Affordable Care Act Fared After Ten Years?

David Ennis evaluates how well the Affordable Care Act has met its expectations and where it has fallen short ten years after its implementation.

Food for Thought

An excerpt from the second edition of Marion Nestle's book, Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health, out now.

We Need Better Research on the Relationship Between Market Power and Productivity in the Hospital Industry

Antitrust debates have largely ignored questions about the relationship between market power and productivity, and scholars have provided little guidance on the issue due to data limitations. However, data is plentiful on the hospital industry for both market power and operating costs and productivity, and researchers need to take advantage, writes David Ennis.

George J. Stigler, one of the most influential economists of the 20th century, won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 1982 “for his seminal studies of industrial structures, functioning of markets, and causes and effects of public regulation.” His research upended the idea that government regulation was effective at correcting private-market failures. Stigler introduced the idea of regulatory capture, in which regulators could be dominated by special interests. These regulators would work for the benefit of large, monied organizations rather than the public good. Catch up on ProMarket's coverage of his legacy.

ProMarket is the Place for Debate

Brooke Fox writes about ProMarket as a digital space where intellectual debate can take place without the influence of special interests. Who should control the...

Concentration in Social Media Undermines Product Design Quality and User Experience

Alissa Cooper and Zander Arnao argue that a lack of competition in social media has allowed dominant platforms to design algorithms to maximize for...

Donald Trump’s Authoritarian Playbook Is Based on Failures of US Corporate Democracy, not Foreign Dictators

Sarah Haan writes that to understand American authoritarianism, it’s less useful to analyze the strategies of elected dictators around the globe than to look at how corporate leaders in the United States have rigged corporate democracy.

Pluralism in Media Markets Is About Democracy, Not Economics

Media pluralism is a core democratic value in Europe. Upholding it requires that media concentration is scrutinized beyond its impact on competition in the traditional economic formulation. By addressing the challenges posed by dominant media players and fostering a diverse information ecosystem, Europe aims to uphold media plurality as a democratic value and ensure that citizens can engage in informed decision-making. From this angle, the European approach to protecting media pluralism might offer an interesting comparative  perspective for the United States debate, write Maciej Bernatt and Marta Sznajder.

The UK’s Path to Sustainable Journalism in the Marketplace of Ideas

Ula Furgal and Magali Eben review the United Kingdom’s efforts to address the lopsided balance of power between traditional news media and digital platforms, embodied in the Cairncross recommendations and subsequent Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act. Although U.K. news media have met the Act with optimism, there remain reasons why the new payment and enforcement regime may prove to be less effective than promised. In 2025, it seems almost trite to ask whether digital platforms have power in our...

Peltzman Finds “Marriage Premium” in Happiness Data

New research by Sam Peltzman finds that married individuals consistently report significantly higher happiness levels than unmarried individuals across all demographics. Using five decades of survey data, the study reveals a persistent "marital premium" in happiness, raising questions about...

The Real Target of Trump’s Crypto Strategy is the Federal Reserve

The United States President has halted plans for a central bank digital currency: a mere show of strength to undermine the Fed’s independence, writes Ignazio Angeloni. This post originally published with Institute for European Policymaking @ Bocconi University. Among the many...

COLUMNS

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