20 July 2021 - antitrust law 1

In the U.S., antitrust law was named when “trust” meant a powerful monopoly, no doubt under influence of the motto “In God we trust, you guys we bust.” In much of the world it is called “competition law”, since it is imagined that limited measures to ensure fair competition (don’t allow cartels, restrict the behavior of monopolies) will cure the ills. The name should be “trust law”, and the goal should be to disallow companies so powerful that you can’t trust them.