Obama CEA Director Joins Bipartisan Condemnation of Radical Antitrust Reform

Yesterday, Former Obama Administration Council of Economic Advisors Director Jason Furman joined the growing pool of experts condemning radical antitrust reform. These statements emphasize further the risk that such extremist policies pose to our economy and only add to the increasing list of reasons as to why Congress must reject the American Innovation and Choice Online Act.

Photo Credit: Federal Communications Commission, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Furman posted a Twitter thread directly asserting that, “antitrust is useful when it advances economic ends (like lower prices, greater variety, more innovation), I just don’t know how to use it to advance political goals.” This reality about antitrust law comes as Representative Ken Buck stated in a recent press conference on AICOA that he wanted to use antitrust law to correct the problem of “companies that are this big control[ling] speech in a democracy.” This misunderstanding of antitrust law is unsurprising as Rep. Buck admitted in the same press conference that “he does not understand antitrust law.” Given this admitted lack of knowledge, it is imperative that Buck and other members of Congress take notes from an economic expert who recognizes that antitrust law will not solve political problems. Antitrust law will not address or fix what Rep. Buck sees as threats to our democracy. But it will bring havoc to our economy.

This Obama Administration appointee joins another in former National Economic Council Advisor Larry Summers who posted a Twitter thread in May warning that the Biden Administration’s neo-Brandeisian approach to antitrust policy “will make the US economy more inflationary and less resilient.” Ironically, in pursuing such radical antitrust goals, President Biden is rebuffing the same experts that were amongst his primary economic advisors when he served as vice president. If President Biden wants to fulfill his campaign promise to listen to the experts, then he must reverse the radical antitrust policies that his administration and party have been pursuing. Otherwise, he would merely be following the whims of progressive activists to attack big companies solely for the sake of their bigness.