Pam Bondi’s old lobbying firm, Ballard Partners, pushed to move through a business travel merger. Bondi’s DOJ did it, in a way that avoids judicial scrutiny.
mergers
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
The Law That Could Blow Open Trump Antitrust Corruption
Lobbyist meddling to get a critical merger case approved could face sunlight thanks to a 1974 law called the Tunney Act, which allows a judge to investigate the outcome.
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
Cane Sugar in Coke Will Not Save Us
Big food and drink companies know exactly how to play Trump and RFK Jr.
Posted inEconomic Policy
Deregulation Swings the Pendulum Toward Financial Crash
The Federal Trade Commission’s decline is a symptom of a public policy designed primarily to protect asset prices.
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
UnitedHealth Has 2,694 Subsidiaries and Affiliates. Is It Too Big to Manage?
This behemoth conglomerate might just be too monstrous for its own good.
Posted inTAP
Trump’s Steel Deal
Today on TAP: The sudden announcement allowing Nippon Steel to buy U.S. Steel is all rhetoric and no enforceable commitments.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
How Corporate Pardons Create Monopolies
Rocket wants to became the only mortgage company in America. The CFPB found its tactics to be illegal—until Donald Trump let the company off the hook.
Posted inEconomic Policy
The Unusual Biden-Trump Continuity in One Area
On antitrust, Trump’s enforcers are challenging mergers and seeking breakups. What’s going on here?
Posted inEconomic Policy
The New Antitrust Consensus
The Trump administration is maintaining the merger guidelines that Lina Khan co-authored, and big business is angry.
Posted inEconomic Policy
Q&A: Taking On the Biggest Problems and the Biggest Companies
An exit interview with Jonathan Kanter, Biden’s head of the Justice Department Antitrust Division