Wall Street Journal Carries Crandall Opinion on AT&T-BellSouth Merger and the State of Antitrust Policy

March 9, 2006

On March 2006, the Wall Street Journal published an opinion of Dr. Robert Crandall, Chairman of Criterion Economics and Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, which analyzed the proposed AT&T-BellSouth merger. The opinion, which was co-authored by Clifford Winston, explained that the proposed merger "looks like a big step toward putting Ma Bell back together 22 years after the trustbusters' biggest victory since the breakup of Standard Oil in 1911." The authors pointed out that the proposed merger is "the latest indication of the irrelevance of antitrust in a rapidly changing global competitive environment." They explained that the telecommunications landscape is quickly evolving, with cable companies "invading the old-line telephone companies' core telephone business" and cellular carriers "beginning to offer high-speed Internet connections and are even launching video services over cellphones." Crandall and Winston conclude with an assessment of the efficacy of antitrust policy in the modern era: "Appearing to put Ma Bell back together again may embarrass the trustbusters, but it should not concern American consumers who, in two decades since the breakup, are overwhelmed with competitive options to provide whatever communications services they desire." The opinion in its entirety can be downloaded at the Wall Street Journal's webpage.