The goal of US antitrust laws, broadly speaking, is to curb the efforts of firms to reduce competition in the marketplace or to create or maintain monopolies. In recent years, various critics have claimed that competition in the American economy has declined owing in large part to ineffective antitrust enforcement. These claims do not stand up to scrutiny. Accordingly, current proposals to transform and expand antitrust enforcement are inappropriate and should be rejected.
Research is a core function of the Federal Reserve (Fed). The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve and reserve banks have large and well-resourced research staffs, whose work both informs Fed policy and constitutes part of the Fed’s communication with the public. Recently, however, the research function of the Fed has come under scrutiny. Some members of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs have expressed concern about the “increasing focus on politically-charged issues” in the research agendas of several of the reserve banks, raising questions about whether the reserve banks are overstepping the bounds of their statutory mandates and risking inflicting reputational damage on the Fed system as a whole.
Occupational licensing is the most stringent form of professional regulation. It forbids Ohio residents from working in a profession before meeting entry requirements, including achieving minimum levels of education, passing exams, and paying fees to the state. Estimates suggest that 18 percent of workers in Ohio are licensed. By erecting barriers to aspiring professionals in the state, occupational licensing imposes a multitude of costs upon consumers and prevents the creation of more than 67,000 jobs in the state each year.
Across Tennessee, inflation-adjusted house prices have increased by nearly 50 percent since 2000. Nearly 40 percent of the state’s low-income households that rent are housing cost burdened. This means they spend more than 30 percent of their income on rent, often leaving them without enough money left over for other necessities. The housing affordability problem is the result of population growth meeting local zoning rules that limit housing construction and raise the price of the housing that does get built. All Tennessee localities have rules that limit multifamily construction, enforce minimum-lot-size requirements, and mandate parking minimums. Each of these rules contributes to the cost of new housing.
A sunset provision like that in HB 390 is likely to extend legislative oversight over new rules created by administrative agencies without significantly disrupting business in Louisiana. Most importantly, the legislation would restore some power to the legislative branch of government, thereby pushing back somewhat on the tendency in American government toward concentration of power in a hierarchically managed executive branch. That said, HB 390 could be improved with, for example, stronger economic analysis requirements, which would give legislators better information upon which to base their decisions and votes.
