John Mackey posts a remarkable public response to the FTC, including the complete text and extended exegesis of one of the inflammatory hot docs that prompted the FTC’s action.  But most amazing of all is this comment…

Read the full piece here. 

As Manfred reports over at the Antitrust Review, the judge has unsealed the FTC’s complaint against Whole Foods. This unredacted version reveals an unhealthy reliance on hot docs by the FTC’s staff. I won’t belabor the point.  But when you’re looking at marketing materials and reports to the board to identify anticompetitive intent (hmmm.  I didn’t know intent was relevant in merger cases . . . .) through “fighting words” and “smoking guns,” you’re barking up the wrong tree. It is little or no evidence of likely anticompetitive effect that Whole Food’s outspoken CEO claims that purchasing Wild Oats will remove “forever or almost forever” the threat to Whole Food’s market.

Read the full piece here.

It appears that the FTC is moving to stop the proposed Whole Foods/Wild Oats merger.

Read the full piece here.

Frankly, I thought the movie, The Corporation, was unabashedly abysmal. It was a childish caricature, exhibiting no understanding by the filmmakers (or most of the interviewees) of the law, economics, or nature of corporations–to say nothing of capitalism. The movie is unsophisticated, anti-capitalist tripe.

Read the full piece here.

As you may know, this past Friday we (Geoff and Josh) organized the inaugural GMU/Microsoft Conference on the Law and Economics of Innovation. Overall, we were extremely pleased with our first entry in this conference series, The Regulation of Innovation and Economic Growth. We had about 130 register for the conference, including many high level FTC and DOJ officials, academics, and industry representatives. In the end we had about 95 attendees. We also hosted a dinner for about 45 Washington VIPs (several FTC folks, a federal judge, prominent attorneys, representatives from USTR and Commerce, etc.) the evening before at Citronelle. A good time and good conversation were had by all.

Read the full piece here.

As Danny Sokol already pointed out, On May 4 at George Mason Law School, Josh Wright and I will be putting on a conference.  This is the inaugural conference in an expected annual series of conferences co-sponsored by George Mason Law School and Microsoft on the law and economics of innovation.  Our first conference is on “The Regulation of Innovation and Economic Growth.”

Read the full piece here.

Benjamin Barber (the author of the polemic, Jihad vs. McWorld) has an editorial in the LA Times today.  Its title is:  “Overselling capitalism: Why today’s markets are headed for disaster unless there is a shift in focus.” At first the editorial looks like a pretty standard entry in the growing line of comments suggesting we deny credit to the poor–you know, for their own good.  But then it really goes off the rails.

Read the full piece here.

Everyone is talking about Steve Jobs’ open letter on DRM,”Thoughts on Music,” including, best among all of them, my colleague, Josh. Among many others, see excellent entries from Jim DeLong, Randy Picker and Mike Madison. Frank Pasquale weighs in with a predictable post about how wonderful the world would be if we just regulated his (perfect) vision of the world, but Josh pretty handily skewers his musings.

Read the full piece here. 

The FTC announced this week perhaps its best decision since . . . well, ever.

Read the full piece here.