[gokenin]

Eveyr since the Sherman antitrust act was repealed during the Reagan years, we see these continually growing cartels in every industry. a very few companies control their individual markets. Pharmaceuticals, oil, internet, cell phones, etc. And our politicians don't care as long as they get their campaign donations. The Koch brothers gave campaign donations to every member of the Energy Committee that supposedly regulates their industry. Are they campaign donations or bribes? Congress calls them campaign donations but they sure smell like bribes.
.

Did I miss something last time I checked the act still exists if it didn't How did Bill Clinton use it in 1998 to go after Microsoft? As for campaign reform it's never going to happen without a complete overthrow of the government no politician will give up the cash but the will all complain about the other guy taking money just not them.

[philbaum]

Did I miss something last time I checked the act still exists if it didn't How did Bill Clinton use it in 1998 to go after Microsoft? As for campaign reform it's never going to happen without a complete overthrow of the government no politician will give up the cash but the will all complain about the other guy taking money just not them.

Well thats what i've heard on the radio. But checking since your post i found these comments:

Throughout the 1980s, political conservatism in federal enforcement complemented
the Supreme Court's doctrine of nonintervention. The administration of
President Ronald Reagan reduced the budgets of the FTC and the Department of
Justice, leaving them with limited resources for enforcement.

and:

Mergers of companies into conglomerates, on the other hand, were looked on
favorably, and the years 1984 and 1985 produced the greatest increase in
corporate acquisitions in the nation's history. As the Supreme Court
strengthened requirements for evidence, injury, and the right to bring suit,
antitrust cases became harder for plaintiffs to win. Most decisions in this
period narrowed the reach of antitrust.

So the act is still on the books, but narrowed by budgets, the direction of who's in charge at the White House, and Supreme Court decisions. The talk show host i listened to was apparently referring to the effect of Reagan's policies rather than an actual repeal - good to know.

You're also right about Clinton:

President Bill Clinton took this activism further. Anne K. Bingaman, his
appointee to head the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division, beefed up the
division's staff with sixty-one new attorneys, declaring her organization the
competition agency. The Antitrust Division filed thirty-three civil suits in
1994, roughly three times the annual number brought under Reagan and Bush

[jeffkrol]

So the act is still on the books, but narrowed by budgets, the direction of who's in charge at the White House, and Supreme Court decisions. The talk show host i listened to was apparently referring to the effect of Reagan's policies rather than an actual repeal - good to know.

You're also right about Clinton:

De-funding or dropping enforcement is a "tool" Congress uses to basically "repeal" a law without repealing it......

Sloppy and inefficient way (and of course basically unfair when they do decide to enforce it) to run a government.....