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Increasingly, the notion that updating antitrust policy with the insights of behavioral economics would significantly improve matters for consumers.   Others have called for more major surgery, favoring an outright rejection of the current economic foundation of antitrust policy — and especially the portions of the foundation “Made in Chicago” — in favor of a new regime based on behavioral economics.  There are plenty of antitrust scholars who’ve begun to make this case, with perhaps Professor Stucke having been the most prolific on this score.  And behavioral economics has provided the intellectual support, or perhaps cover depending on who you ask, for the recent regulatory expansion involving consumer credit.  The issue is also getting more and more attention.  Competition Policy International recently published a symposium issue dedicated to the topic.

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The new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is right around the corner  Talk has now turned to who might run the powerful agency and what it might do.  The WSJ names names…

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Judge Posner offers his thoughts on financial reform, mostly negative, at Bloomberg.   The thrust of the essay is that the financial regulation produced by the political process has, at best, a poor nexus to the actual causes of the economic crisis, and that what we are left with is primary reorganization and reshuffling to look busy.  Judge Posner discusses the political advantages to reshuffling as a response to government failure…

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I don’t think I suffer from any phobias (heck, I’m not even afraid of clowns, though some would argue that suggests a lack of prudence on my part).  I’m not sure Professors Whitman and Rizzo do either, despite Professor Thaler’s gentle ribbing.  While Whitman can surely defend himself, I can’t resist pointing out that Thaler’s example of Prohibition is illustrative of Whitman’s point.

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