I'm kind of over the whole "Anti-monopoly" movement
Noah Smith
· Noahpinion
· June 04, 2026 at 05:52
· ⏱ 25 min read
| Read on Substack ↗
Summary
Noah Smith argues that the antimonopoly movement has become an obsessive, anti-empirical faction that overstates corporate concentration as the root cause of all societal problems, leading to misguided policies like blocking low-margin mergers and blaming corporate landlords for high rents. This critique implies that markets should be wary of regulatory overreach targeting industries without strong evidence of market power, as such actions may harm competition and workers rather than help them.
•Azar et al. (2017) found that labor market concentration reduces wages, while Blonigen and Pierce (2016) showed mergers raise prices.
•Multiple studies (Alvarez et al. 2025, Leduc et al. 2024, Bouras et al. 2023) found markups stayed constant during the 2021-22 inflation, contradicting 'greedflation' claims.
•Rossi-Hansberg et al. (2021), Rinz (2022), and Autor et al. (2023) found employer concentration actually decreased in local labor markets over recent decades.
•Shapiro and Yurukoglu (2024) summarized measurement disputes that cast doubt on whether aggregate markups have actually risen significantly.
•The Biden administration blocked the Kroger/Albertsons merger despite grocery stores having very low profit margins that declined during inflation.
•Blocking the Spirit/JetBlue merger led to Spirit Airlines going out of business, costing 17,000 jobs.
•Corporate landlords own only a tiny percentage of rental homes, and some evidence suggests they charge lower rents than individual landlords.
•Barry C. Lynn, founder of the modern antimonopoly movement, claimed monopoly causes racism, homophobia, and 'just about every ill in our society,' a view Smith calls 'monomaniacal' and unsupported by evidence.