FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Andrea Beaty, [email protected]
New Report Finds Extensive Revolving Door To Corporate Interests Undermines Robust Anti-Monopoly Enforcement
Today, the Revolving Door Project published a new white paper, “The Revolving Door In Federal Antitrust Enforcement,” which presents new evidence of the extent and impact of the revolving door at both the leadership and staff levels between the Department of Justice Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission and corporate-aligned entities. Revolving Door Project’s original research tracking where FTC and DOJ Antitrust staff end up working after leaving their positions found that over 60 percent left for employment in BigLaw firms, merger-driven corporations, and economic consulting firms from 2014 to 2021. The report considers how this extensive corporate influence over agency personnel has contributed to muted antitrust enforcement and accelerating consolidation. It concludes with executive branch-focused recommendations for how new and updated agency regulations could slow the revolving door and drastically reduce the advantages corporate monopolies enjoy from it.
Report author and Revolving Door Project Senior Researcher Andrea Beaty, said, “President Biden’s appointment of trust-busters Lina Khan and Jonathan Kanter has been met with bad-faith attacks by monopolistic corporations seeking to preserve their economic power. But our report reveals that corporations, with the help of their BigLaw defenders, have been playing a long game to create a crisis of incentives that lulls even well-intentioned enforcement officials into regulatory complacency. Dismantling this revolving door is key to restoring robust and effective antitrust enforcement in the United States.”
Revolving Door Project Executive Director Jeff Hauser said, “There should be few, if any, jobs in law more attractive than getting to represent the American people against would-be monopolists. We need the lawyers representing us against plutocrats to be as committed as possible to the mission of an economy that works fairly for all. This report demonstrates the need to make sure that jobs at the FTC and DOJ Antitrust are so desirable that people stay there until they retire, instead of biding time for the most lucrative departure opportunities possible.”
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