1. Ok, let's talk about the 'everyone is busy but nothing is happening' problem among white collar law enforcers. Textbook case is the Federal Trade Commission, the corporate cop. FTC insiders talk about how busy they are, and then decry limited authority when they do nothing.
2. The antitrust bar is full of publicly civil lawyer/economist millionaires or future millionaires who behind closed doors exhibit self-pitying 'woe is me' disdain of critics. A common criticism towards us peasants is 'you don't understand.' So let's take a simple case.
3. A few months ago, the FTC busted a few companies that sold things with the label Made in China which were, you guessed it, Made in China. The penalty was to.. ask them to stop doing it. That's it. Nothing else. No refunds. No fine. Nothing. Not even an admission of wrongdoing.
4. One of these companies targeted soldiers, selling them goods made in China using the specific hashtag "Made in USA." It was bad. It was obvious. But the vote to do nothing to these companies was a bipartisan 4-1. 3 Rs and 1 D voted for nothing, and 1 D dissented. Why?
5. Well the Chairman of the FTC @JoeSimonsFTC and the Democrat @RKSlaughterFTC issued a concurrence in which they used a fake doctrine limiting their own authority to do anything else. ftc.gov/system/files/d…
6. @JoeSimonsFTC and @RKSlaughterFTC argued, falsely, that the FTC can't ask for redress unless the agency can show that the companies charged more money because of the fraud they committed. This is false. Fraud is fraud. The FTC can get remedies for it. ftc.gov/system/files/d…
7. That's what @JustinBrookman and Maureen Mahoney of Consumers Union showed in their legal analysis. They show that this weird attitude of powerless "is not justified by any economic or other policy considerations, nor any legal requirements." They tied their own hands.
8. Yesterday in an FTC oversight hearing, @JoeSimonsFTC and @RKSlaughterFTC asked for more authority. This may seem like a no-brainer. Sure, make it easier to enforce. But what if authority isn't the problem? What if the problem is the enforcers? That is what is going on here.
9. I don't agree w/@FTCPhillips, but he's at least open about how he doesn't really believe in enforcing laws against corporate concentration. It's @JoeSimonsFTC and @RKSlaughterFTC who talk up a big game but do the opposite. Thus, everyone's busy but nothing's happening.
10. This is the problem. This just isn't true. It's designed to say 'I want to help but I can't.'
11. I don't really know how to fix our enforcement apparatus. Makan Delrahim sided with Apple in a ridiculous posture and hasn't done anything since AT&T-Time Warner. But @JoeSimonsFTC and @RKSlaughterFTC really need to rethink their approach to the FTC or the FTC is in trouble.
12. Ugh, this is a mistake. What I meant was that they marketed products as "Made in USA" which were in fact made in China.
13. This is, by the way, a pattern. The FTC had the authority and no legal risk in stopping a merger of giant industrial gas companies, Linde and Praxair. They cleared it for *no reason*, again in a 4-1 decision.
14. The FTC did it with other consumer frauds, allowing companies to simply not obey FTC orders. This one was another 4-1 decision.
15. Many of you submitted comments on a similar potential decision, a wage fixing case about a company called Your Therapy Source. The FTC still hasn't issued its final order, probably because of all the comments.
16. I know this seems really in the weeds, and it is. But the FTC is the institution charged with dealing with Facebook and when Senators @DickBlumenthal and @tedcruz asked @JoeSimonsFTC about Google/Facebook he wouldn't say anything. Not even how many staff are investigating.
17. Wall Street doesn't laugh at the FTC anymore, it's not even worth the effort of laughing at the commission. It's really tragic. This is a commission designed to protect us from concentrations of power. I hope we can get back to that. It's essential. But this is where we are.
