cawacko
Well-known member
I saw a liberal tweet yesterday that 30% of Vance's convention speech could have been rhetoric used by Bernie or Sherrod Brown. Clearly the Reagan 80's style embrace of the free market is no longer a #MAGA/America First priority but this fusion of right and left wing populists is something to behold.
Do Republicans want to rein in the regulatory state or unleash it? It’s hard to tell these days, and the contradiction comes into sharp focus in J.D. Vance’s embrace of Lina Khan, Elizabeth Warren’s favorite regulator who runs the Federal Trade Commission.
At a Bloomberg technology forum in February, Mr. Vance called Ms. Khan “one of the few people in the Biden administration that I think is doing a pretty good job.” At what? Breaking the law and losing in court?
The FTC Chair has been the most ambitious Biden regulator, stretching the law at every opportunity to impose her policy views on antitrust and other matters. No Biden regulator has lost more in court as a result. Federal judges rejected Ms. Khan’s efforts to block the Microsoft-Activision and Meta-Within Unlimited acquisitions. Another judge this month tossed her ban on non-compete agreements.
Mr. Vance nonetheless supports her policy of jettisoning the consumer-welfare antitrust standard that has prevailed for 40 years. Her revised guidelines empower the agency to challenge mergers because of their effects on workers, suppliers and minority ownership stakes, among other non-antitrust factors.
The FTC is challenging the Kroger-Albertsons grocery tie-up on the grounds it would reduce retail labor competition, no matter that the supermarkets compete with countless businesses for workers. They aim to reduce prices by increasing their leverage with suppliers. The combined company would also compete more vigorously with big-box stores.
Yet Ms. Khan disregards real-world evidence of consumer benefits in favor of speculative theories of competitive harm. A federal judge in June rejected the FTC’s attempt to block a North Carolina hospital merger based on one such theory, noting the deal “carries at least as much likelihood of competitive benefits as it does competitive harm.”
Her new antitrust paradigm hurts startups, as Mr. Vance ought to know from his experience in venture capital. Acquisitions allow early investors to earn a return. They will be less likely to invest in a startup if they think regulators will block its sale.
Ms. Khan also isn’t doing any favors for U.S. workers. Amazon and iRobot, the Roomba vacuum manufacturer, blamed regulatory obstacles in calling off a merger in January. Afterwards iRobot announced it was cutting nearly a third of its workforce and research and development spending by “offshoring of non-core engineering functions to lower-cost regions.”
Mr. Vance’s support for Ms. Khan is all the more puzzling given her hostility to conservatives. She has harassed Elon Musk and accused former Pioneer Natural Resources CEO Scott Sheffield of colluding with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) based on dubious evidence. Mr. Sheffield’s political offense was criticizing Mr. Biden’s anti-fossil-fuel policies.
We remind readers of Ms. Khan’s biggest hits because Mr. Vance may lobby Mr. Trump to reappoint her in a second term. This would contradict Mr. Trump’s promise to shrink the bureaucracy, which reflects the GOP confusion these days over economics.
J.D. Vance, Lina Khan and the GOP’s Economic Contradictions
Trump’s running mate has embraced Biden’s most lawless regulator. Is that what a second term will bring?Do Republicans want to rein in the regulatory state or unleash it? It’s hard to tell these days, and the contradiction comes into sharp focus in J.D. Vance’s embrace of Lina Khan, Elizabeth Warren’s favorite regulator who runs the Federal Trade Commission.
At a Bloomberg technology forum in February, Mr. Vance called Ms. Khan “one of the few people in the Biden administration that I think is doing a pretty good job.” At what? Breaking the law and losing in court?
The FTC Chair has been the most ambitious Biden regulator, stretching the law at every opportunity to impose her policy views on antitrust and other matters. No Biden regulator has lost more in court as a result. Federal judges rejected Ms. Khan’s efforts to block the Microsoft-Activision and Meta-Within Unlimited acquisitions. Another judge this month tossed her ban on non-compete agreements.
Mr. Vance nonetheless supports her policy of jettisoning the consumer-welfare antitrust standard that has prevailed for 40 years. Her revised guidelines empower the agency to challenge mergers because of their effects on workers, suppliers and minority ownership stakes, among other non-antitrust factors.
The FTC is challenging the Kroger-Albertsons grocery tie-up on the grounds it would reduce retail labor competition, no matter that the supermarkets compete with countless businesses for workers. They aim to reduce prices by increasing their leverage with suppliers. The combined company would also compete more vigorously with big-box stores.
Yet Ms. Khan disregards real-world evidence of consumer benefits in favor of speculative theories of competitive harm. A federal judge in June rejected the FTC’s attempt to block a North Carolina hospital merger based on one such theory, noting the deal “carries at least as much likelihood of competitive benefits as it does competitive harm.”
Her new antitrust paradigm hurts startups, as Mr. Vance ought to know from his experience in venture capital. Acquisitions allow early investors to earn a return. They will be less likely to invest in a startup if they think regulators will block its sale.
Ms. Khan also isn’t doing any favors for U.S. workers. Amazon and iRobot, the Roomba vacuum manufacturer, blamed regulatory obstacles in calling off a merger in January. Afterwards iRobot announced it was cutting nearly a third of its workforce and research and development spending by “offshoring of non-core engineering functions to lower-cost regions.”
Mr. Vance’s support for Ms. Khan is all the more puzzling given her hostility to conservatives. She has harassed Elon Musk and accused former Pioneer Natural Resources CEO Scott Sheffield of colluding with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) based on dubious evidence. Mr. Sheffield’s political offense was criticizing Mr. Biden’s anti-fossil-fuel policies.
We remind readers of Ms. Khan’s biggest hits because Mr. Vance may lobby Mr. Trump to reappoint her in a second term. This would contradict Mr. Trump’s promise to shrink the bureaucracy, which reflects the GOP confusion these days over economics.
Loading…
www.wsj.com
Last edited:
