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The standard, classroom story about the history of antitrust starts with crusading progressive activists breaking up the Standard Oil trust in 1911 to save consumers from corporate greed.
The standard, classroom story about the history of antitrust starts with crusading progressive activists breaking up the Standard Oil trust in 1911 to save consumers from corporate greed. But a closer look at the case shows something rather different: a story about anti-competitive rent-seeking hidden in the guise of fighting for the little guy. Peter and Paul discuss William Shughart’s Regulation article “Reappreaising Standard Oil” and then apply what they learn to contemporary antitrust cases like Epic Games v Apple.
Paul Matzko is a historian and a former research fellow for media studies at the Cato Institute. His book, The Radio Right: How a Band of Broadcasters Took on the Federal Government and Built the Modern Conservative Movement, was published by Oxford University Press. It has been described as “impressively researched and lucidly written” (Wall Street Journal), “provocative,” (New Republic), and “terrifically entertaining” (New York Journal of Books).
Peter Van Doren is editor of the quarterly journal Regulation and an expert in the regulation of housing, land, energy, the environment, transportation, and labor. He has taught at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs (Princeton University), the School of Organization and Management (Yale University), and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. From 1987 to 1988 he was the postdoctoral fellow in political economy at Carnegie Mellon University. His writing has been published in theWall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Journal of Commerce, and the New York Post. Van Doren has also appeared on CNN, CNBC, Fox News Channel, and Voice of America. He received his bachelor’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his master’s degree and doctorate from Yale University.