A sure-fire way to kill a country's antimonopoly policy is to make
it dependent on professional economic opinion. The U.S., for example, has
been on such a policy course for the past 2 decades and the result has been
a disaster. Economists, as befits their profession, are devout maximizers
of their personal incomes. Monopoly firms tend to have a lot of
money--which they quite sensibly use to buy whatever body of "expert"
opinion it takes to maintain their monopolies. When economic theory is made
the arbiter of antimonopoly policy, professional economic opinion promptly
promptly undergoes a massive shift to the right, becoming overwhelmingly
pro-monopoly--the better to enrich the economists involved (and their
monopoly clients). A nation can have an effective antitrust program ONLY if
it is willing to eliminate economic theory from the decision-making process.
The following is #7 in my "model" Antitrust Bill of Rights. Again,
my journal (below) would like to publish a variety of such proposals.
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ANTITRUST
BILL OF RIGHTS
.........................
7. The second most frequent barrier to an effective antimonopoly
policy--after a country's national judiciary--is economic theory. All such
theory, except where it has been validated by experience and solid empirical
(factual) studies, is mere speculation and has no place in proceedings
before an antimonopoly tribunal. Professional economists, understandably
eager to be hired as "experts" by monopoly firms--and thus to maximize their
personal incomes (fees of $5,000 per day are not unheard of)--almost
invariably mirror the views of their paymasters, making it virtually
impossible for a country to have a meaningful antimonopoly policy that
depends on the support of expert economic opinion. It is therefore the
policy of this Nation that its business enterprises and its Citizens shall
have the right to have their complaints under its antimonopoly laws
evaluated solely on the basis of facts as determined in open court by their
peers, not speculative theories. The role of economists, whether by
testimony or in written materials, shall be limited to the describing and
offering of such scientifically-valid empirical investigations and shall in
no case include their opinions on any material issue.
Charles Mueller, Editor
ANTITRUST LAW & ECONOMICS REVIEW
http://webpages.metrolink.net/~cmueller
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