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

When film buffs hear “Antitrust: the Movie,” they probably think of the 2001 flick,   

starring Ryan Phillippe, Claire Forlani, and Tim Robbins.   Well, expand your mind and your

book shelf for another antitrust video, with a more realistic plot and plenty of heroes — Antitrust the

Documentary.  The new video will be made for tv and for classrooms, and made possible by an award

of $496,000 granted as part of the Vitamin Cases Consumer Settlement Fund (Judicial Council Coordination

Proceeding No. 4076 Master File No. 301803, San Francisco County; approved September 8, 2004).

 

  As a press release posted today by the American Antitrust Institute explains:

A California court has awarded to the American Antitrust Institute a grant of nearly

half-million dollars to educate California consumers and businesses about the benefits

of the antitrust laws, including the production of a half-hour documentary video for a

television audience and educational materials for high school classrooms.1 The video

will present stories about several actual antitrust cases, demonstrating the harm to

consumers and ways in which the federal government, state government, and private

attorneys brought relief.

 

A blue ribbon panel of attorneys, economists, and educators in California will advise

on the cases to be presented and a diverse “project team” will provide continuing advice

on quality and tone of the film and other materials.

 

  AAI has selected The Filmmakers Collaborative in

San Francisco to produce and distribute the video. In addition, the video will be modified

for use within a high school curriculum.

 

The AAI, in conjunction with Street Law, Inc., and the Constitutional Rights Foundation,

will develop and distribute teaching and text materials, and train teachers in California so

that an antitrust section can be inserted into various social science curricula.

With his usual flair for understatement, AAI President Bert Foer explained further: 

“Although antitrust may sound like an esoteric and painfully dry topic, it is actually full of drama

with important economic and political implications that often escape public attention. Our film and

materials will be objectively presented, colorful and provocative. They should stimulate a great deal

of interest about the need for promoting and protecting competition in our economy.”

 

Our Prof. Yabut wonders just what the folks at  Von Mises Institute (see Antitrust: The Case for Repeal), 

the Competitive Enterprise Institute , and the Center for the Advancement of Capitalism  [f/k/a. Center for

the Moral Defense of Capitalism] will have to say about this.  Perhaps, they’ll be pleadin’ “Mamas, don’t let

your babies grow up to be antitrust lawyers.”

 

If you’d like to learn right now about the benefits of antitrust for consumers, go to the annotated links in AAI’s

Guide to Antitrust Resources on the Web.  (We suggest the EU brochure.)   Click here to learn about other

projects funded through the Vitamin Case Settlement Fund.

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  While you have AAI and Bert Foer on your mind, I suggest reading his op/ed piece on

  
  

  Social Security and Antitrust (FTC:WATCH, Jan. 31, 2005).  Bert summarizes:

  
  

  
  

  “We seem to have made the choice to place more stress on the individual

  
  

  by putting the individual ever more at risk within the economic sphere,

  
  

  while reducing the role of the safety net. How much more stress will people

  
  

  accept before they rebel against the very idea of free markets?  Protect or

  
  

  protectionism: that is the question.”

 

 

the thief
is just as he is…
hazy moon

 

 

first frost–
flower sellers in a row
hitting their bells

 

 

Kobyashi Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue