THE NEXT ANTITRUST AGENDA THE AMERICAN ANTITRUST INSTITUTE'S TRANSITION REPORT ON COMPETITION POLICY TO THE 44TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

By Albert A. Foer, editor The American Antitrust Institute (AAI) was founded in 1998 as an independent, nonprofit education, research, and advocacy organization. Celebrating its tenth anniversary during the important 2008 presidential campaign, the AAI determined to utilize this year to generate an integrated vision for re-energizing competition policy in the United States. Ours is a vision that departs in substantial ways from the outlook that has driven competition policy for much of the past generation. We offer it to the next administration without presupposition as to which party will control Congress or who the President will be. Traditionally, the ideal of competition as the preferred regulator of business behavior has enjoyed bipartisan support, beginning with the introduction of the Sherman Act in 1890 by a Republican and its signing into law by a Republican. But interpretations of what constitutes healthy competition and priorities for enforcement have varied over time, somet