f/k/a archives . . . real opinions & real haiku

AEI’s AG Watch may have to change its Least Favorite Website

selection.   It’s nemesis, Prof. Jim Tierney, has a new ally in the 

fight to make State Attorneys General stronger and better cham-

pions of consumers and competition.  It’s The State Center, whose

mission is:

to enhance consumer welfare by supporting the fair,

effective and vigorous enforcement of antitrust and

consumer protection laws at the state level.

                                                                                

 

The State Center says it is “independent of any other organ-  

nization” and “bipartisan in outlook and approach.”  Its 

Executive Director is Stephen D. Houck, the former chief of

the New York AG antitrust unit.  (see “New York’s Trustbusters,”

NYSBA Journal, July 2004).   It’s 4-person Board of Directors

is chaired by Wisconsin attorney Kevin J. O’Connor; and includes

Prof. Tierney; Penn State law professor Susan Beth Farmer; and 

Shirley Sarna, a former FTC attorney and ex-chief of the NYS AG 

Consumer Frauds Bureau, who now teaches at John Jay Law 

School.   

 

State Center has been busy preparing materials for use by the

Antitrust Modernization Committee, as it looks into the role of

state AGs in antitrust enforcement.   It already has an online

grant application form, and travel stipends for AAGs who want

to attend relevant conferences.

 

“$key small”  The Center is also setting up a Panel of Economists, in order

to  “have economists available for consultation by AAGs confidentially

and expeditiously, at the State Center’s expense, in the early stages

of an investigation.”

Steve Houck would like your input: “If you have any

thoughts with respect to the structure, operation or

composition of the State Center Panel of Economists,

don’t hesitate to share them with the Executive Director.” 

 

Note (especially to AEI’s federales and Prof. B) : We’re pretty

sure Steve means constructive thoughts.

Confession:  Long ago, the Editor of this weblog was a young and

brash FTC antitrust lawyer, who may have looked down his nose at

state law enforcers.  However, as we stated a year ago over at Crime

& Federalism, in How Federalism Saved Antitrust, the states have

proven their worth as protectors and preservers of our nation’s antitrust

regime.   As Lloyd Constantine told the American Antitrust Institute

in 2004:

“BoxerSignG” The Antitrust Laws are worth preserving and fighting

for. It is important for State and Federal antitrust agencies to

try to coordinate their efforts when possible – but it is also

essential that each sovereign guard the law and maintain

its prerogative to act, and if necessary to act boldly and

alone. . . . Federalism is not a suicide pact.”

Although I used the word “nannies” above to attract attention, I believe

that state attorney generals, and thus The State Center, have an impor-

tant role to play in the protection of consumers and competition.  That

is especially true in an era when the interests of the average American

consumer is often given far too little consideration at the federal level. 

 

 

His Honor’s glasses
clouding over…
adjourned for snow 

 

     barry george

 

 

city lights —

the brightest are all

selling something

 

      john stevenson –

            Upstate Dim Sum (2005/I)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the mountain moon               
gives the blossom thief
light

                         Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue