It’s The AAF Exchange — your source for clear, data-driven insight into today’s economic and domestic policy issues.

In this episode of the AAF exchange, AAF President Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Director of Technology and Innovation Policy Jeffrey Westling, and Director of Competition Policy Fred Ashton discuss the Federal Reserve’s strategy for the remainder of 2024 and provide a deep dive into U.S. antitrust enforcement.

AAF products mentioned in today’s episode:

• In “Highlights of CBO’s June Update to the Budget and Economic Outlook for 2024 to 2034,” Director of Fiscal Policy Jordan Haring breaks down the key points of the Congressional Budget Office’s Budget and Economic Outlook: 2024–2034.
• In “Federal Budget Update,” Holtz-Eakin walks through the CBO’s bleak fiscal forecast.
• In “Taking Stock of the Inflation Outlook,” Holtz-Eakin reviews the latest economic figures and discusses the Fed’s decision to leave interest rates and quantitative tightening unchanged.
• In “A Sparse Yet Punchy Week,” Director of Regulatory Policy Dan Goldbeck examines the regulatory impacts and changes of the week of June 10.
• In “The Antitrust Agencies’ Big Tech Cases: An Update,” Westling provides a summary of the illegal monopolization cases against Google, Apple, Amazon, and Meta, as well as an update on their status and when to expect some form of resolution.
• In “Antitrust Goes Industrial,” an op-ed for The Hill, Ashton considers the harms in the Biden Administration’s industrial policy under the guise of increased antitrust enforcement.
• In “Industrial Policy and Antitrust Enforcement,” Ashton discusses his op-ed in The Hill on why using antitrust enforcement to craft industrial policy is the wrong idea.
• In “FTC Prepares Robinson-Patman Enforcement Action,” Ashton walks through what the Robinson-Patman Act does, discusses criticism of the law, and considers what recent calls for its revival could mean for future antitrust enforcement.
• In “The Effect of Congressional Antitrust Legislation on Consumers,” Westling and former Technology and Innovation Policy Analyst Juan Londoño review the American Innovation and Choice Online Act and the Open App Markets Act.
• In “FTC to Test New Merger Guidelines in Kroger/Albertsons Challenge,” Ashton breaks down the FTC’s suit to block the merger between supermarket chains Kroger and Albertsons and examines the broader implications for the antitrust agencies’ new Merger Guidelines.
• In “New HSR Rules Threaten M&A Activity Vital to Small Businesses,” Ashton explains how proposed new rules governing the Hart-Scott-Rodino premerger notification program could harm small businesses.
• In “Early Termination’s Termination: The First Full-Year Look from FTC and DOJ,” Ashton considers the harms of the antitrust agencies’ moratorium on early termination, a practice that allowed mergers and acquisitions posing no competitive concerns to close quickly, during its first full year in effect.

Whether you’re on your lunch break or commuting home, The AAF Exchange will keep you up to speed on today’s most pressing policy issues.

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