This might come as a shock to those of you who have old-fashioned ideas about why the economy isn't so hot right now. You may have notions that the problems are things such as too much consumer debt, a housing bubble caused by sub-prime mortgages...enabled by the government via Fannie Mae & Freddi Mac, or even too much money made available by the Fed, but you would be wrong.
The folks in the Obama administration have identified a new culprit [3]. Big businesses. Specifically, those that dominate their markets.
As if commandeering the banking, finance and auto industries weren't enough, a couple of weeks ago the Obama administration decided to throw a bomb at modern antitrust law.
Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Christine Varney claims that the Justice Department can aid economic recovery by prosecuting businesses that have been successful in gaining large market shares. In her announcement last month she argued that "many observers agree" that our current recession reflects "a failure of antitrust" and "inadequate antitrust oversight."
So, the problem with our economy is businesses that have been so successful that they have gained a dominate share of their markets? "Success" is our problem?
They're ready to pursue the European model of regulation that makes it harder for businesses to do the things that you want businesses to do. You know, make money, give people jobs, create new taxpayers and generally make things that people want and that can make our economy more productive, and hopefully start the cycle all over again.
One is tempted to suggest that they're just clueless, but that's not true. They know what they're doing. And why. Which makes it worse.
Any takers on whether this leads to a place where the Obama administration starts taking big companies to court to "break them up"...under Obama's terms?
