Quotation of the Day…

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… is from pages 32-33 of Dominick Armentano’s superb 1986 monograph, Antitrust Policy: The Case for Repeal (footnote deleted):

The actual competitive process is one of discovery and adjustment; it is not a static state of affairs. The economic problem is not one of allocating resources efficiently when everything is known and constant, but of learning how to allocate and reallocate resources in an uncertain and changing world. Competition is an entrepreneurial process of discovering what, in fact, consumers do prefer and which firms, employing which technologies and strategies, will be able to supply those products. The competitive process is not restricted by the failure of specific products or firms; nor is it limited because efficiency and preferences prevent some would-be rivals from competing. Those who say they are preserving competition by preserving specific competitors or by subsidizing new firms to enter markets do not understand the purpose of a competitive market process.

DBX: Indeed so.

Foremost among those persons who today do not understand the purpose of a competitive market process are Lina Khan and other current U.S. government antitrust officials.