January 19, 2010

After the publication of Robert Bork's "Antitrust Paradox," I began to asemble ideas for a similar critique of the application of the antitrust laws to  modern distribution systems and an assessment of the dysfunctions that have resulted. In large measure, these tensions are the result of the way 19th Century concepts of competion and markets are failing to accomodate the impertatives of modern mass market distribution strategies, many of which are pro competitive, but which are held to be anticompetitive  under recieved antitrust interpretations. The present incomplete manuscript is the result. Since I do not ever plan to finish the book, I have posted it for those of you who might be interested in having a look at a different approach to the regulation of competition in distribution channels.

                                           Jim Patterson,  Orr's Island, ME