Antitrust, the "Public Interest" and Competition Policy : The Search for Meaningful Definitions in a Sea of Analytical Rhetoric

Nearly forty-five years ago, Justice Felix Frankfurter warned that the term "competition" may not be viewed in an "abstract, sterile way." This Paper submits that during the Clinton/Gore Administration, both antitrust enforcement and major public policy regulatory initiatives have ignored Frankfurter's caveat by recasting the end-goal of "competition" (which, through rivalry, attempts to maximize consumer welfare by producing dynamic and static economic efficiencies) to something more akin to "fair, competition-like outcomes accompanied by the benevolent use of 'market-friendly' regulation." In other words, competition is a zero-sum game