Sean-Michael Pigeon writes about how the FTC could hurt consumers, instead of helping:
The Federal Trade Commission is a government agency explicitly intended to protect American consumers. In antitrust law, the “consumer welfare standard” has been employed for decades. In short, this means that the FTC should take enforcement action (such as blocking mergers) only when it is necessary to do so to protect consumers, a commonsense requirement that also serves as a useful block on administrative overreach.
However, Khan’s appointment to the FTC chair signaled an attempt by progressives to break through this guardrail, which stood in the way of their broader attack on big business. To progressives, “bigness” itself might be reason enough for suspicion (or worse), regardless of whether the behavior of the big company in question has demonstrably hurt Americans’ pocketbooks.
David Bahnsen talks to Kevin Hassett on the latest episode of the Capital Record. Listen here, or wherever you get your podcasts.