Anti-Trust Laws

Anti-Trust Laws should be abolished because they do not leave the consumer sovereign in the market. Instead, through coercion (if necessary) it disrupts what the market has created that best fits the customer's needs. These laws are abused by the government and present far too much power for the government to have over private enterprise.

It is impossible for a monopoly to exist without it presenting a deal to the public that each consumer finds to be his best option.

I'm not close to done reading this, but it very interesting:

The History of the Standard Oil Company

http://mises.org/journals/scholar/Jankovic.pdf

Here is a good working paper on anti-trust laws.

I like this quote from the reading:

"The superior efficiency of large establishments has not been demonstrated. The advantages that are supposed to destroy competition have failed to manifest themselves in many fields. Nor do the economies of size, where they exist, invariably necessitate monopoly. The size or the sizes of the optimum efficiency may be reached long before the major part of the supply is subjected to such control. The conclusions that the advantage of large scale production must lead inevitably to the abolition of competition cannot be accepted. It should be noted moreover, that monopoly is frequently the product of factors other than the lower costs of greater size. It is attained through collusive agreement and promoted by public policies. When these agreements are invalidated and when these policies reversed, competitive conditions can be restored."

Hayek understood that anti-competitive monopolies are established only through government action.