Random Walk

■ I’m hearing it more and more: the soft sound of Gucci loafers in the corridors of power. Half a million American manufacturing jobs may have disappeared over the last year, but there’s a hiring boom for lawyers and lobbyists. National Journal reporter John Moore recently documented a “resurgence” in hiring by anti-trust litigation firms—a quiet backwater in the anti-regulation Reagan years. Six separate firms were hired to lobby on one merger case alone: QVC Network Inc.’s takeover attempt of Paramount.

Credit for this comeback is due, in large part, to Anne Bingaman, the new assistant attorney general for anti-trust at the Justice Department. Mrs. Bingaman has five-star liberal credentials: her husband is a Democrat senator from New Mexico, she’s a longstanding FOH (friend of Hillary), and she has worked as an attorney for Planned Parenthood and the Children’s Defense Fund. She also gained celebrity status by winning the largest anti-trust judgment in history, a $1-billion settlement. She represented the United Nuclear Corp.—that’s okay, though, because the other side was the General Atomic Company.

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■ I’m hearing it more and more: the soft sound of Gucci loafers in the corridors of power. Half a million American manufacturing jobs may have disappeared over the last year, but there’s a hiring boom for lawyers and lobbyists. National Journal reporter John Moore recently documented a “resurgence” in hiring by anti-trust litigation firms—a quiet backwater in the anti-regulation Reagan years. Six separate firms were hired to lobby on one merger case alone: QVC Network Inc.’s takeover attempt of Paramount.

Credit for this comeback is due, in large part, to Anne Bingaman, the new assistant attorney general for anti-trust at the Justice Department. Mrs. Bingaman has five-star liberal credentials: her husband is a Democrat senator from New Mexico, she’s a longstanding FOH (friend of Hillary), and she has worked as an attorney for Planned Parenthood and the Children’s Defense Fund. She also gained celebrity status by winning the largest anti-trust judgment in history, a $1-billion settlement. She represented the United Nuclear Corp.—that’s okay, though, because the other side was the General Atomic Company.