In later life, after defeating Sauron and securing the peace of Middle Earth, Gandalf retired to a quiet life teaching antitrust.

Does anyone have an up to date list of DOJ and FTC merger cases litigated in the Biden Admin (not FTC reports, which include consents)?

Against all the odds, GO BLUE!!!

FTC won case vs Kroger/Albertson’s merger on consumer effects. On labor side, “the limited evidence presented at this time is not sufficient to independently support a preliminary injunction.” Fitting end to Biden admin: success on conventional theories, failure on novel ones.

Jonathan Kanter is stepping down as AAG this week, leaving the able Doha Mekki as Acting. Despite our disagreements, I’ll miss seeing Jonathan at DOJ. Life was never dull while he was in charge!

Very sorry to hear of the passing of George Priest. A giant in the field, and always generous to me.

Don’t trust the signs at the Hemingway House.

I tried to persuade my 8-year-old that if a student does poorly in Antitrust they can take the course in Trusts and that cancels out the grade in Antitrust. He wasn’t buying it …

Very sad to report that my colleague Tom Kauper, a distinguished antitrust scholar, head of the Antitrust Division, and Michigan Law professor for over 40 years, passed away yesterday.

The Acting Solicitor General has announced the administration will seek overturn of Humphrey’s Executor. Whatever the correct constitutional rule, I stand by my claim that FTC is very different from how SCOTUS described it in Humphrey’s. repository.law.umich.edu/articles/1718/

If Donald Trump really wants to promote Tesla sales, he could push for a federal bill allowing EV direct sales nationwide.

I am pleased to announce that my book Direct Hit: How Tesla Went Straight to Consumers and Smashed the Car Dealers’ Monopoly will be published by Cambridge University Press later this year.

I’ve long been a critic of Humphrey’s Executor, but pretty surprised that Trump fired both Democratic FTC Commissioners in one fell swoop. His political calculus isn’t clear. If project is to get HE overruled ASAP, there were other paths.

I don’t usually weigh into politics on X, but I’m going to say something radical (and I hope all my economist friends will forgive me): I think the tariffs are a bad idea.

DOJ has criminal predatory pricing investigation of TP-Link. My 2022 article documented earlier criminal PP cases: Nash Bros (1917), Nat’l Linen (1955), Safeway (1955), Harte-Hanks (1958), HP Hood (1963), United Fruit (1963). Don’t say “unprecedented.” Do say “zany.”

Implosion of Trump/Musk alliance may be most dramatic since Taft/Roosevelt in 1912, when Taft called TR a “dangerous egoist” and “demagogue,” and TR called Taft a “fathead” and “puzzlewit.” But then Taft wept bitterly at TR’s funeral, and I don’t see that happening here.

Trump Admin kept in place Biden Merger Guidelines but just revoked Biden Executive Order on competition. The merger guidelines only made sense in light of the executive order, so we’ll have to see what’s next for mergers.