Competition in Freight Rail: Unpacking Consolidation, Concentration, and Remedies in a Critical Part of the U.S. Transportation System
Release Date: 02/07/2022
Default Status/De Facto Exclusion: What does a Rival Search Company Have to Say About the Google Case?
Ruled by Reason
On this episode of Ruled by Reason, we explore the ramifications of the Google search case from a unique perspective—the rival search engines that have been directly affected by Google’s alleged monopolistic conduct. As the antitrust world eagerly awaits a decision this spring, AAI’s Kathleen Bradish interviews DuckDuckGo's Kamyl Bazbaz, VP of Communications and Public Affairs, about his impressions of the recently argued case. This episode unpacks how Google’s conduct, including “marathon” sized payments to OEMs to ensure default status, cuts rivals off from major access points...
info_outline
Praise and Constructive Criticism: The Pro-Enforcement Community Weighs in on the Draft Merger Guidelines
Ruled by Reason
On this episode of Ruled by Reason, AAI’s Kathleen Bradish talks with Open Market’s Sandeep Vaheesan and the American Economic Liberties Project’s Erik Peinert about the pro-enforcement community’s views on the draft Merger Guidelines recently released by the FTC and DOJ. This is a wide-ranging and in-depth discussion about how the proposed changes succeed in advancing better merger enforcement, where they fall short, and what beneficial modifications could be made to the final version. Using each organization’s comments to the draft Guidelines as the jumping off point, Bradish talks...
info_outline
How Should Antitrust Tackle Antitrust’s “Duty to Deal” in the Tech Sector? A Conversation With Erik Hovenkamp, 2023 Jerry S. Cohen Award Winner for Antitrust Scholarship
Ruled by Reason
In this episode of Ruled by Reason, guest host Roger Noll, Professor of Economics, Emeritus, at Stanford University and AAI Advisor sits down with Erik Hovenkamp to chat about his award-winning article ” (131 Yale L.J. 1483 (2022)). Professor Hovenkamp is Assistant Professor at the USC Gould School of Law. His article argues that the law on exclusive dealing has failed to distinguish between “primary” and “secondary” refusals to deal. The article explains that the suffocating evidentiary requirements imposed on refusal to deal claims should not be applied to secondary...
info_outline
Unpacking the 2023 Revised Merger Guidelines: A Conversation With the U.S. Department of Justice
Ruled by Reason
On this episode of Ruled by Reason, AAI President, Diana Moss, and AAI Vice President for Legal Advocacy, Kathleen Bradish talk with leadership at the U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division about the newly released merger guidelines. Moss and Bradish are joined by Susan Athey, Chief Economist for the Antitrust Division and Michael Kades, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division. This is the 7th revision of the merger guidelines since they were first released by the antitrust agencies in 1968. The revisions are notable for many reasons, not the least of which is...
info_outline
The Cloud Technology Market: Storm of Innovation or Rainy Days for Competition?
Ruled by Reason
On this episode of Ruled by Reason, AAI President, Diana Moss, and AAI Vice President for Legal Advocacy, Kathleen Bradish talk about competition and cloud technology markets. AAI recently issued the report: The Cloud Technology Market: Storm of Innovation or Rainy Days for Competition? Moss and Bradish unpack AAI’s analysis of a vitally important market in the digital economy, beginning with the explosive growth in cloud computing over the last two and a half decades. The report identifies the major cloud players and asks: What is the state of competition in the market? For example, is...
info_outline
How Do We Fix the Competition Problem in Shipping? The Role for Private Actions under the Shipping Act
Ruled by Reason
On this episode of Ruled by Reason, AAI Vice President for Legal Advocacy Kathleen Bradish hosts J. Wyatt Fore and David Golden of Constantine Canon to discuss their work in private antitrust enforcement under the Shipping Act. They explain how consolidation in the shipping industry has led to a serious competition problem, one that came into full view when COVID-19 exposed a dangerous lack of resilience in the supply chain. The conversation covers the role of the Federal Maritime Commission in antitrust enforcement and the role for private enforcement in working...
info_outline
Private Equity’s Impact on Physician Practices: Unpacking Markets, Competition, and Prices
Ruled by Reason
On this episode of Ruled by Reason, AAI President Diana Moss hosts two leading healthcare competition experts. Laura Alexander is Director of Markets and Competition Policy at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth and Brent Fulton is Associate Research Professor of Health Economics and Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and Associate Director of the Petris Center on Health Care Markets and Consumer Welfare. They take up an increasingly troubling issue in healthcare competition: growing private equity ownership of physician practices. The conversation previews major...
info_outline
Powerful Buyers and the Grocery Supply Chain: What Does it Mean for the Independent Grocer?
Ruled by Reason
On this episode of Ruled by Reason, AAI President Diana Moss hosts David Smith, CEO of Associated Wholesale Grocers, and Chris Jones, SVP of Government Relations and Counsel for the National Grocers Association. They take up a front-line issue: consolidation in the retail grocery supply chain and the threat it poses to smaller independent grocers. The accumulation of market power has spurred an ongoing cycle of bulking up to gain bargaining leverage over suppliers and customers, with significant effects on smaller players in the supply chain, including farmers and ranchers, small food brands,...
info_outline
Airline Consolidation and Labor A View From the Cockpit
Ruled by Reason
In this podcast episode, AAI President Diana Moss sits down with two airline pilots, Kelly Ison and Eric McEldowney, to talk about the effect of airline consolidation on labor workforces. There have been almost 20 airline mergers involving U.S. carriers in the last two decades, six of which have involved mergers of major legacy and low-cost carriers. Today, the sector is dominated by a tight oligopoly of carriers. But consolidation continues, with merger proposals such as JetBlue and Spirit, joint ventures like the Northeast Alliance codeshare, and increasing complexity in the international...
info_outline
Taking Stock of Merger Enforcement Under the Biden Agencies: A Conversation With Steven Salop
Ruled by Reason
In this podcast episode, AAI President Diana Moss and Steven Salop, Professor Emeritus at Georgetown Law, take stock of the Biden antitrust agencies’ merger enforcement record. The antitrust chiefs at the Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division were chosen specifically for their commitment to invigorating antitrust enforcement. As we head into the third year of the Biden administration, now is a good time to assess how the agencies are doing on merger control. Vigorous merger enforcement under Clayton Act Section 7 acts to prevent the emergence of...
info_outlineIn this episode, AAI President Diana Moss sits down with two experts to discuss the state of play in competition in freight rail. Freight rail is a vital part of the U.S. transportation system. It is the second largest mode of transportation in the U.S. and industry sources estimate that freight rail shipments will increase 30% by 2040. Railroads, and the shippers that transport on them, are responsible for the movement of critical commodities and products involving agriculture, energy, automotive, chemical, construction, and forestry. But we don’t hear much in the news about the state of competition in freight rail in the U.S. That’s unfortunate, since the sector has been home to massive consolidation over the last half a century. Since about 1950, there have been over 80 railroad mergers in the U.S. Today, there are only 5 domestic Class I railroads operating in the U.S.—two in the west, two in the east, and one down the middle.
My two guests on this episode are experts in rail competition. We will unpack the state of competition and consolidation in freight rail and what it means for shippers and consumers. We start at the 10,000 foot level, explaining why competition in rail transportation matters and walking through a brief history of U.S. rail consolidation. Next, we do some deeper dives into how railroad mergers diminish competition and who is harmed. We finish with how harmful railroad mergers are remedied by the government and some of the major, current regulatory policy initiatives for addressing competition issues, including reciprocal switching, and others.