US antitrust law is all about ‘who is paying who’ – editorial director of research institute tells Boom Bust

Top antitrust official at the US Department of Justice (DOJ) Makan Delrahim removed himself from an investigation into alleged anticompetitive practices at Google over a potential conflict of interest.

RT’s Boom Bust talks to Jeffrey Tucker, the editorial director of the American Institute for Economic Research, about what’s behind this antitrust saga.

“All these things are battles between interest groups,” says Tucker, adding “It’s like Google versus Google’s competition.” He explains that “the government machinery there is just to resolve the fight between the two, pick the largest with the biggest pockets on behalf of the biggest complainers.”

According to the American writer and internet entrepreneur, “for about a century we pretended as if antitrust is backed by some sort of science, we imagined economists sitting there with their models, trying to figure out if it’s truly competitive.”

This is sheer nonsense, Tucker says, adding “It’s all about who is paying who, has the largest stakes...” That’s what behind any of these antitrust actions, he says, noting in reference to Google “This is going to be no different.”

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