In this episode of Trust and Trade, Dr. Elizabeth Wang, Executive VP of economic consulting firm Compass Lexecon, explains how antitrust enforcers use the Gross Upward Pricing Pressure Index (GUPPI) analysis to determine whether to stop a merger. Dr. Wang walks listeners through what the GUPPI test is, what it tells you, when to use it, and its advantages and limitations. Later, host Anant Raut and co-host NERA's Anton Kandalin discuss how the GUPPI test was used to challenge the Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster mergers.

With special guest:

Dr. Elizabeth Wang, Executive Vice President, Compass Lexecon

Hosted by:

Anant Raut and Antonin Kaladin

Why are groceries more expensive than they were 4 years ago? In this episode, agriculture policy expert Austin Frerick and economist Tim Richards debate the impact of consolidation on food prices, and the role antitrust should play. Hosts Anant Raut, Evan Harris, and Erika Inwald later discuss the Federal Trade Commission's lawsuit to block the Kroger-Albertson's merger, and what to expect at trial later this month.

With special guests:

Austin Frerick, Fellow, Thurman Arnold Project (Yale University) and Dr. Timothy J. Richards, Morrison Chair of Agribusiness, W. P. Carey School of Business (Arizona State University)

Hosted by:

Anant Raut, Evan Harris, Morrison Foerster LLP, and Erika Inwald, Hausfeld LLP

In this episode you'll learn everything you need to know about the Critical Loss test used by enforcers to determine whether to block a merger - what it tells you, how to calculate it, and when to use it. Guest Ron Drennan, Economic Advisor to the DOJ Antitrust Division and former acting director of economics, explains how Critical Loss predicts the profitability of a post-merger price increase. Co-hosts Scott Scheele and Anant Raut later discuss real world cases where the Critical Loss test was used by the DOJ in litigation (H&R Block/TaxAct and Aetna/Humana), with mixed results. The latest in our "Mergernomics" series, demystifying the economic tools used in merger analysis!

With special guest:

Ronald Drennan, Economic Advisor, United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division

Hosted by:

Anant Raut and Scott Scheele, Kirkland & Ellis LLP

In this episode, Open Markets Institute's Sandeep Vaheesan and former acting FTC Chair Maureen Ohlhausen discuss the looming nationwide ban on noncompete clauses for workers and debate the roots and limits of the FTC's powers under Section 5 of the FTC Act. Host Anant Raut and co-host Scott Perlman talk about the legal challenges the ban is likely to face, and where Lina Khan's FTC may go next with the agency's interpretation of its own authority.

With special guests:

Sandeep Vaheesan, Legal Director, Open Markets Institute and Maureen Ohlhausen, Co-Chair of the Antitrust and Competition Practice, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Related Links:

FTC noncompetes ban

Hosted by:

Anant Raut and Scott Perlman, Partner, Mayer Brown

This episode kicks off Trust and Trade's "Mergernomics" series, demystifying the economic analysis that antitrust enforcers use to predict whether a merger will harm competition and should be blocked. Host Anant Raut and co-host January Kim welcome Aditi Mehta, Economics Director for the DOJ Antitrust Division, to give an overview of the role of economists in merger review, common frameworks for understanding competitive harm, quirks of special markets like platforms and labor, and some of the most commonly-used tests to evaluate merger effects.

With special guest:

Aditi Mehta, Economics Director of Enforcement, Department of Justice Antitrust Division

Hosted by:

Anant Raut and January Kim, Counsel to the Director of Civil Enforcement, Department of Justice Antitrust Division

It's been called the "antitrust trial of the century" - U.S. v Google, the DOJ and state AGs' case against Google's alleged search monopoly. In this episode, we asked three of the top antitrust trial lawyers in the country to listen to the closing arguments in the case and talk about the tactics and strategies of both sides, the effectiveness of their arguments, and potential implications for ongoing antitrust cases against Amazon, Apple, and Google.

With special guests:

Tara Reinhart, Partner, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, Kalpana Srinivasan, Managing Partner, Susman Godfrey LLP, and Dan McCuaig, Partner, Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC

Related Links:

Transcript of the closing arguments

Hosted by:

Anant Raut, Host, Trust and Trade and Christopher Graham, Associate, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP

US v AU Optronics, or, the LCD screens case, is one of the most important price-fixing cartel cases of the last 25 years. Now, for the first time, co-hosts Anant Raut and Anna Pletcher bring together lawyers from the prosecution, defense, and presiding Judge Susan Illston to recount some of the case's historic firsts, including the size of the financial harm, the extraterritorial reach of the Sherman Act, and the unique sentencing imposed. Get an inside take on the litigation strategies, the legal arguments, and the view from the bench in a one-of-its-kind account of this watershed case!

With special guests:

Hon. Susan Illston, Senior Judge, United States District Court for the Northern District of California, Heather Nyong'o, Partner, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, Brent Snyder, Partner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, and Patrick Robbins, former Partner, Shearman & Sterling LLP

Related Links:

United States' Sentencing Memorandum

Hosted by:

Anant Raut and Anna Pletcher

The word "privacy" doesn't appear in the FTC Act, yet for 25 years, the FTC has used its limited resources and enforcement tools to act as the country's privacy enforcer. Past and current FTC leadership join host Anant Raut for this rousing look at the history of privacy enforcement by the FTC, and contemplate its future. In a world where the threats to privacy have grown manifold, has the Commission stretched the handful of words passed by Congress in 1938 as far as they can, and is it time for a new agency, empowered with fit-to-purpose authority, to take the baton for the next 25?

With special guests:

Samuel Levine, Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission, Daniel Kaufman, Partner, BakerHostetler, and Maneesha Mithal, Partner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati LLP

Hosted by:

Anant Raut

Look around you - almost everything in your home or office was once on an ocean shipping vessel. Yet this essential area of commerce continues to enjoy one of the oldest exemptions from US antitrust law. Does this loophole keep prices low for consumers? Or does it raise prices for shippers and make supply shocks worse? Hosts Anant Raut and David Golden are joined by Shipping Act expert Melissa Maxman and the American Antitrust Institute's Kathleen Bradish to debate whether it's time to deep-six the Shipping Act antitrust exemption.

With special guests:

Kathleen Bradish, Acting President, American Antitrust Institute and Melissa Maxman, Partner, Cohen & Gresser LLP

Related Links:

American Antitrust Institute report on "Competition Enforcement, Private Actions, and the Shipping Act"

Hosted by:

Anant Raut and David Golden

Season 3 of Trust and Trade kicks off with an in-depth look at the heated turn in the relationship between the Federal Trade Commission and Congress, which broke into public view during a July oversight hearing by the House Judiciary Committee. Host Anant Raut and guest host John Villafranco welcome Katie McInnis (Chief Democratic Counsel to the subcommittee) and Nina Frant (former counsel to Commissioner Wilson) to discuss their insights from the hearing - what was said, how Chair Khan responded, and what this might mean for the FTC going forward.

With special guests:

Katie McInnis, Chief Democratic Counsel, House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust and Nina Frant, Vice President for Consumer Policy, U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Hosted by:

Anant Raut, John Villafranco, and Greg Fortsch