FTC Intervenes to Keep Prices High for Consumers

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Ludwig von Mises Institute: FTC Intervenes to Keep Prices High for Consumers

NOVEMBER 20, 2014 Ryan McMaken

Thomas DiLorenzo writes on the FTC's latest "anti-monopoly" move:

 

Would it make sense for a corporation to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a new business with a business plan of competing with Wal-Mart by charging higher prices than Wal-Mart does? Of course not; the biggest idiot in the entire business world would never contemplate such a stupid idea, yet that is the cornerstone of the Federal Trade Commission’s argument for holding up a proposed merger between Dollar General and Family Dollar. The FTC is demanding that Dollar General sell 4,000 of its existing stores as a condition of the merger. If not, say the bureaucratic ignoramuses there, the merger will create “monopoly power.” In the language of the FTC, “monopoly power” means the power to raise prices. This of course would allow Wal-Mart (among other corporations) to wipe out the newly-merged corporation