In today's Wall Street Journal, George Priest argues that
it's a mistake for the Obama administration to change antitrust policy
from one that, at least allegedly, is focused on protecting competition
to one focused on restricting large and successful – "dominant" –
entities from competing vigorously with less-successful rivals. Priest is right:
this policy will help only weaker rivals as it harms consumers.
But
if the administration insists on resurrecting this old-fashioned (and
intellectually discredited) policy, it should do so consistently. It can
begin by blocking the Democratic Party from taking advantage of its
dominance over its much-weaker rivals. Given President Obama's apparent
understanding of the competitive process, he must know that the G.O.P.
and other minor parties can compete against the Democrats only if
government prevents the Democrats from exploiting their current market
dominance.
