Antitrust and Banking

• Author: Alan S. Blinder
• DOI: 10.1177/0003603X9604100209
• Published date: 01 June 1996
• Date: 01 June 1996
• Subject Matter: Article

The Antitrust Bulletin/Summer 1996

Antitrust and banking

BY ALAN S. BLINDER*

447

Thank you very much Gene [Ludwig]. I am glad to be here. I find

myself, however, in an awkward position

for

two reasons. First, as

probably most of you

don't

know, but as the press knows, the Fed-

eral

Open

Market Committee goes on blackout for a few days

after a meeting. In case you didn't know, we had a meeting yester-

day. So I want to announce that nothing

I'm

about to say is a

veiled hint about monetary policy. Or, if it is,

it's

so veiled that

even I

don't

know what it means. Second, the subject matter says:

critical analysis of current

policy-current

policy, that is, toward

competition in banking. And,

of

course, it is

our

policy, along

with that

of

the Department of Justice. So here I am, charged with

the task

of

critiquing the Fed's competitive analysis for antitrust

policy. And, furthermore, as you probably do know, the second

rule

of

Fedspeak is: never deviate from the party line. So I have a

triply difficult task. Perhaps Gene Ludwig thought that I haven't

* Vice Chairman, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Sys-

tem.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Address to the Conference

on

Antitrust and Banking,

sponsored by the Office

of

the Comptroller

of

the Currency, Washington,

DC, Nov. 16, 1995.

© 1996 by Federal Legal Publications. Inc.