Democratic lawmakers push for stricter antitrust rules amid merger boom

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Democrats are ramping up their attacks on major corporate mergers after a series of mega-deals from corporate giants.  But Democrats aren’t just taking aim at the behemoth deals themselves: they’re looking at the specific government policies that permit them. Sen Elizabeth Warren
 (D-MA) on directly attacked the Chicago school of economics — the principles that have significantly influenced how federal regulators evaluate mergers.

Sen Warren and other Democrats say that these principles allow and, in some cases, encourage larger mergers, which they believe threaten competition and potentially hurt the public as well.  Democrats’ criticism comes amid a new wave of mega-mergers in 2017, which Wall Street expects to continue into 2018. Over the past year, companies including AT&T and Time Warner, CVS and Aetna and Monsanto and Bayer have pursued multibillion-dollar mergers. Overall, billion-dollar plus mergers are up from a year ago.


Democratic lawmakers push for stricter antitrust rules amid merger boom