President Biden's Executive Order on Promoting Competition: an Antitrust Analysis

Abstract

In July, 2021, President Biden signed a far ranging Executive Order directed to promoting competition in the American economy. This paper analyzes issues covered by the Order that are most likely to affect the scope and enforcement of antitrust law. The only passage that the Executive Order quoted from a Supreme Court antitrust decision captures its antitrust ideology well – that the Sherman Act:

rests on the premise that the unrestrained interaction of competitive forces will yield the best allocation of our economic resources, the lowest prices, the highest quality and the greatest material progress, while at the same time providing an environment conducive to the preservation of our democratic political and social institutions.

Northern Pac. Ry. Co. v. United States, 356 U.S. 1, 4 (1958) (Black, j.).

Keywords: antitrust, monopoly, presidential power, labor, agriculture, economic growth, mergers, right to repair