Makan leniency clear: The Tipline for 12 April 2019

The Department of Justice yesterday held a public roundtable that debated the agency's 15-year-old leniency programme. While some observers praised the Antitrust Criminal Penalty Enhancement & Reform Act as being a system that works, others have criticised the programme as outdated and in need of clarity. Today, we’re at the Federal Trade Commission for a round of panels about merger retrospectives, two of which feature John Kwoka. The Northeastern University economics professor’s 2014 book assailed the failures of the federal government’s handling of deals, but two FTC economists pushed back with claims that Kwoka’s evidence and empirical methods were too flawed to support his conclusions. Sadly, the event today does not feature a steel-cage debate among the economists.