Biden's Antitrust-Buybacks Contradiction.

• Author: Spector, Alfred Z.

Reading Richard West and James Largay's recent article challenging criticisms of corporate stock buybacks ("Against Taxing Corporate Stock Buybacks," Summer 2023), I found myself wondering about the contradiction between the Biden administration's buybacks crackdown and its expansionist antitrust efforts.

On the one hand, the administration says it wants to tax buybacks so that companies will invest more in new opportunities. But if those opportunities bear fruit, the firms presumably will grow bigger. On the other hand, the administration (particularly Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan) clearly wants to dissuade companies from getting bigger, e.g., the recent lawsuit against Microsoft to block its acquisition of a game developer and other, more recent guidelines. Given this, one would think the administration would prefer the Apples and Microsofts and Googles spin-off...