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The Obama Administration’s new antitrust czar Christine Varney signaled on Monday that the Bush era of lax business regulation was over. In a speech at the Center for American Progress Varney disavowed a controversial report that has been used to justify monopoly conduct by big businesses. Under Bush, the idea that regulation would stifle competition and innovation, reigned. The report in question was rejected by three commissioners on the Federal Trade Commission which shares antitrust authority with the Justice Department. Over the last 8 years, the European Union has replaced the US in actively attempting to regulate companies like Microsoft and Intel. President Obama has characterized the Bush administration as having “what may be the weakest record of antitrust enforcement of any administration in the last half-century.”

GUEST: Bert Foer, President of the American Antitrust Institute

For more information, visit www.antitrustinstitute.org.