Ascendant today among antitrust scholars and enforcers are the so-called “neo-Brandeisians.” Named after progressive Associate Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, the neo-Brandeisians’ chief goal with respect to antitrust is to dislodge the consumer-welfare standard from its lofty perch as the guide for determining if and when markets are performing so poorly as to warrant antitrust intervention.
Let’s hope that in this effort the neo-Brandeisians fail.