Creative Discussion: An Antitrust Podcast

This episode of the Creative Discussion podcast features a recent debate between ITIF's Joseph V. Coniglio and Joel Thayer of the Digital Progress Institute on the question of whether the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICOA) would help or hurt innovation and consumer choice. The debate was moderated by veteran tech journalist Nancy Scola and is re-aired here with no substantive edits. Watch the live recording here.Cases MentionedUnited States v. Philadelphia National Bank, 374 U.S. 321 (1963)  Spectrum Sports, Inc. v. McQuillan, 506 U.S. 447 (1993)  United States v. Microsoft Corp., 253 F.3d 34 (D.C. Cir. 2001)  Epic Games, Inc. v. Apple Inc., 67 F.4th 946 (9th Cir. 2023)  United States v. Google LLC, No. 1:20-cv-03010 (D.D.C. Aug. 5, 2024)  Federal Trade Commission v. Meta Platforms, Inc., No. 1:20-cv-03590 (D.D.C.))

Joseph V. Coniglio hosts retired Jones Day partner and former DOJ Antitrust Division leader Joe Sims, who recounts how he discovered antitrust in law school, explains the origins and impact of the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, and forecasts diminished FTC antitrust authority.Cases MentionedHumphrey’s Executor v. United States, 295 U.S. 602 (1935)

Joseph V. Coniglio hosts Robert H. Bork Jr., president of the Antitrust Education Project, to discuss his book The New Paradox: Antitrust and the Threat of Conservative Socialism. They cover what’s happening now in antitrust policy, Trump-era antitrust continuity, and why antitrust is the wrong tool for speech issues.Publications MentionedBork, Robert H., Jr. The New Paradox: Antitrust and the Threat of Conservative Socialism. Washington, D.C.: Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, 2024. Bork, Robert H. The Antitrust Paradox. New York: Basic Books, 1978. Bork, Robert H. Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline. New York: ReganBooks, 1996. Cases MentionedBrown Shoe Co. v. United States, 370 U.S. 294 (1962)United States v. Von's Grocery Co., 384 U.S. 270 (1966)Utah Pie Co. v. Continental Baking Co., 386 U.S. 685 (1967)United States v. AT&T Inc., No. 17-02511 (D.D.C. June 12, 2018) 

Joseph V. Coniglio hosts two guests, Tim Muris, Foundation Professor of Law at Antonin Scalia Law School, and Bruce Kobayashi, Paige V. and Henry N. Butler Chair in Law and Economics at Antonin Scalia Law School, to discuss the Robinson-Patman Act and its renewed enforcement.Publications MentionedBruce Kobayashi and Timothy J. Muris. "Stop Making Sense: Reviving the Robinson-Patman Act and the Economics of Intermediate Price Discrimination," Competitive Enterprise Institute. Timothy J. Muris. "Zombie Antitrust: Is Robinson-Patman a Dead Law Walking?" Competitive Enterprise Institute. Melissa Holyoak and Christopher G. Mufarrige. “From Protecting Competitors to Protecting Competition: The Past, Present, and Future of the Robinson-Patman Act,” Antitrust Law Journal 87, no. 2 (2025).Bork, Robert H. The Antitrust Paradox: A Policy at War with Itself. New York: Basic Books, 1978.Sreya Kolay, Janusz Ordover, and Greg Shaffer. “All-Units Discounts in Retail Contracts,” Journal of Economics & Management Strategy 13, no. 3 (2004): 429–59.Frederick M. Rowe, Price Discrimination Under the Robinson-Patman Act. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1962. Joseph J. Spengler, “Vertical Integration and Antitrust Policy,” Journal of Political Economy 58, no. 4 (1950): 347–52.Cases MentionedFederal Trade Commission v. Morton Salt Co.Federal Trade Commission v. Southern Glazer's Wine and Spirits, LLC.

Joseph V. Coniglio joins guest Jonathan Barnett, Torrey H. Webb Professor of Law at the USC Gould School of Law, at the 2026 Antitrust Spring Meeting. They discuss Barnett’s new ITIF report, Europe’s innovation gap, and China’s mercantilist use of competition law. Publications MentionedBarnett, Jonathan M. The Big Steal: Ideology, Interest, and the Undoing of Intellectual Property. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024.Barnett, Jonathan M. Antitrust Undone: How Competition Enforcers Are Undermining Competition. Washington, DC: Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), 2026.Barnett, Jonathan M. “Antitrust Mercantilism: Strategic Devaluation of Intellectual Property Rights and Wireless Markets.”U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission. Antitrust Guidelines for the Licensing of Intellectual Property. 1995.

Joseph V. Coniglio hosts the third episode of a new antitrust speaker series and interviews longtime antitrust scholar and retired DOJ economist Greg Werden.​ They discuss Werden’s path from chemistry to economics and his four-decade career at DOJ, discussing both constants and changes in antitrust enforcement. Publications MentionedWerden, Gregory J. The Foundations of Antitrust. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2020.Werden, Gregory J. “The Competitive Process Standard.” Antitrust Law Journal (2024).Areeda, Phillip E., and Herbert Hovenkamp. Antitrust Law: An Analysis of Antitrust Principles and Their Application. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1978–.Bork, Robert H. The Antitrust Paradox: A Policy at War with Itself. New York: Basic Books, 1978.Cases Mentioned​United States v. Microsoft Corp.United States v. IBM Corp.United States v. AT&T Co.United States v. Philadelphia National BankStandard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United StatesChicago Board of Trade v. United States

Joseph V. Coniglio hosts the second episode of a new antitrust speaker series and interviews Alden Abbott, senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and an advisory board member of the Antitrust Education Project.​ They discuss antitrust’s Chicago Revolution, Neo-Brandeisian enforcement, and the Google & Meta cases.

Join Joseph Coniglio, director of ITIF’s Schumpeter Project on Competition Policy, as he inaugurates Creative Discussion: An Antitrust Podcast by engaging in an in-depth discussion with Herb Hovenkamp, James G. Dinan Professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Dubbed the “Dean of Antitrust” by The New York Times, Hovenkamp shares his career journey, insights on his influential Areeda-Hovenkamp Treatise, and perspectives on significant antitrust issues such as the consumer welfare standard and current antitrust litigation targeting Big Tech.