Book Review: The Economist as Reformer: Revamping the Ftc, 1981-1985

• DOI: 10.1177/0003603X9103600208
• Date: 01 June 1991
• Published date: 01 June 1991
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

The

Antitrust

Bulletin/Summer 1991

The Economist as Reformer:

Revamping the FTC, 1981-1985

509

James C. Miller III

Washington: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research

(1989), x+110 pp.

Reviewed by Roger E. Schechter, Professor

of

Law, George

Washington University.

To say

that

former FTC Chairman Miller's book about his years

at the Federal Trade Commission is a

"slim"

volume is a bit like

saying that the American savings and loan industry is

"finan-

cially

troubled."

While true, it is something

of

an understate-

ment.

There is, to be blunt, not much here. Net

of

blank pages,

endnote pages

and

lengthy excerpts from two

of

the opinions in

an antitrust case against the lead antiknock compound industry, I

there are 78 pages

of

text. Moreover, as Miller himself notes,

much

of

the book is rewritten from speeches

and

press releases he

issued during his 4 years at the helm

of

the FTC.2 The reader

looking for new insights into the workings

of

the Commission is

likely to be disappointed, consoled only by the fact that the time

investment in getting through the book is modest.

Ethyl

Corp.,

101

F.T.C.

425 (1983), rev'd sub nom.

DuPont

v.

FrC,

729

F.2d

1288 (2d Cir. 1984).

2As he puts it, "[t]his volume presents acondensation, reorgani-

zation,

and

updating

of

speeches, articles, congressional testimony,

adjudicative decisions and

other

statements Iprepared while chairman

of the

FrC."

J.

MILLER,

THE

ECONOMIST

AS

REFORMER

3 (1989) [herein-

after

MILLER].

©1991by Federal Legal Publications, Inc.