January Threads 2025

ICLE January 31, 2025

Threads from ICLE scholars on trending issues for the month of January 2025.

Be sure to tune in this afternoon (2pm ET) as I discuss the question of remedies in the Google Search antitrust case. With @AsheeshKAgarwal, Anant Raut, & Tom DeMatteo (from @BasedMikeLee's ofc). Organized by @FedSoc. Link below. pic.twitter.com/xiqA4YBPWW

— Geoffrey Manne (@geoffmanne) January 29, 2025

.@LawEconCenter: “If courts were to treat the use of common pricing software as tantamount to collusion, that precedent could chill innovation far beyond the #realestate sector.” https://t.co/NcPm4TKDSN #AI #artificialintelligence #antitrust #technology #tech #proptech

— RealPage Public Policy (@rppublicpolicy) January 27, 2025

Last week, I was able to chat with Oliver Hart at our @LawEconCenter event, "Substance over Slogans."

The focus was on contracts, the nature of the firm, and what his research means for antitrust. I was especially excited about his more recent work.

Here's what I learned: pic.twitter.com/mlX1FXHLh3

— Brian Albrecht (@BrianCAlbrecht) January 23, 2025

Excited about my new publication (with @PankhudiK05) “The many shades of open banking: A comparative analysis of rationales and models” in @PolicyR! #OpenBanking #FinTech
Check it out here: https://t.co/YLyoXI8kac pic.twitter.com/1wFA3OLojP

— Giuseppe Colangelo (@GiuColangelo) January 22, 2025

The FTC's mad dash to file cases before the administration change continues.

This time it's Pepsi for… *checks notes*… giving volume discounts to big retailers? ?

The Robinson-Patman lunacy continues… pic.twitter.com/FmeydsWFQg

— Brian Albrecht (@BrianCAlbrecht) January 17, 2025

My quick thoughts/takes on the TikTok opinion.

First, the opinion itself: assumes but doesn't decide the 1A is implicated; applies intermediate scrutiny; the law easily survives.

Opinion is per curium with concurrences from Sotomayor and Gorsuch. 1/

— Gus Hurwitz (@GusHurwitz) January 17, 2025

With today's TikTok decision and Wednesday's oral arguments on online age verification in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, online speech issues return to the Supreme Court. @TOTMblog today, I have a post on the Paxton oral arguments (a ?)https://t.co/ux08WgQBdE

— Ben Sperry (@RBenSperry) January 17, 2025

Two major macro trends since 1980:
– Rising markups
– Declining business dynamism

By now, it’s accepted that market power killed dynamism.@UpdatedPriors and I find that the industry data tells a completely different story.

Conventional wisdom => ??? ? on our updated paper pic.twitter.com/O2EAZAbjNi

— Brian Albrecht (@BrianCAlbrecht) January 15, 2025

Is it back to the middle ages for Canadian antitrust? Recent reforms of the Competition Act jettison economic analysis by allowing the Bureau to intervene on the basis of market concentration alone & by eliminating the efficiencies defense. 1/5 pic.twitter.com/eZVdQZFnz8

— Lazar Radic (@laz_radic) January 14, 2025

On behalf of @LawEconCenter, @geoffmanne, @AuerDirk and yours truly have submitted comments to the @EuropeanCommiss Consultation on the Proposed Measures for Interoperability Between Apple’s iOS Operating System and Connected Devices (DMA.100203). Short ? pic.twitter.com/jGmRGm5hTC

— Mario Zúñiga (@MZunigaP) January 10, 2025

With Meta's Announcement of new moderation policies, I consider hest this means for online speech over @TOTMblog (a ?):https://t.co/hLXUi0Ubw4

— Ben Sperry (@RBenSperry) January 10, 2025

@bencasselman has a interesting NYT piece about economists losing influence in policy.

Lots to think about in it. A few reactions ?https://t.co/Dgf9q09L2W

— Brian Albrecht (@BrianCAlbrecht) January 10, 2025

California is burning. The tragedy of the destruction is unfathomable.

On top of that, many homes don’t have insurance. Why?

This is because of price controls. But CA's Prop 103 system goes way beyond normal insurance price controls into total dysfunction ?

— Brian Albrecht (@BrianCAlbrecht) January 10, 2025

It seems the NTIA really wants to stack the deck against LEOs such as Starlink and Amazon's soon-to-be-launched Kuiper.https://t.co/hWth5kPUji pic.twitter.com/B9pMtZW6QG

— Eric Fruits, Ph.D. (@ericfruits) January 8, 2025

If you’re following the Palisades fire and are curious about why concerns about underinsurance and availability are so prominent in California, @raylehmann and I have a paper for you. If you hate reading papers, here’s the upshot (thread).

— Ian Adams (@IAtheTeapot) January 8, 2025

A new digital symposium at @TOTMblog looks to gather diverse voices to explore the promises and pitfalls of industrial policy at a time when it occupies a central role in political and economic discourse.https://t.co/vIQ5T3KqeZ

— Int'l Ctr Law & Econ (@LawEconCenter) January 7, 2025

When you buy a product, you pay twice:

1. Money to the company
2. Time to actually use it

Most economics ignores #2.

With Tom Phelan and @nickpretnar, we show how this consumer time use changes markups, firm entry, and efficiency. ? pic.twitter.com/CXPJduLxbU

— Brian Albrecht (@BrianCAlbrecht) January 7, 2025