The Closed Mind Inquiry —Antitrust Report is Raiders’ Nadir

• Author: Lee Loevinger
• DOI: 10.1177/0003603X7201700301
• Published date: 01 September 1972
• Date: 01 September 1972
• Subject Matter: Article

THE

CLOSED

MIND IN9UIRY

-ANTITRUST

REPORT

IS

RAIDERS'

NADIR

by

LEE

LOEVINGEB·

FIRST

EDITION

Nationally syndicated news stories in

June

1971,

reported

the release of a "Nader study group report on antitrust en-

forcement." The tone was indicated by the title, "The Closed

Enterprise System," and by the first line of Ralph Nader's

introduction: "This is a report on crime in the suites."

Patient perusal of the full

report-all

1,150 pages of

it-

discloses

that

this is a comprehensive collection of all the

adverse criticisms, reports, rumors and gossip of the

last

generation regarding antitrust. The scope is as ambitious as

any of the Nader corporate enterprise undertakings to date.

In

twenty-three chapters, the report undertakes to cover

economics, politics, policy personnel, enforcement resources,

criminal and civil process, economic concentration, case

studies of automobiles, banking, the professions and the oil

industry, history of the FTC,

FTC

consent orders,

FTC

merger cases,

FTC

economics, Bobinson-Patman, proposed

reorganizations of

antitrust

agencies, the FCC, Comsat, De-

fense procurement, the ICC, the FPC, accounting principles,

treble damage suits, and the antitrust bar, plus two ap-

pendices reporting the results of a survey of businessmen's

and federal district judges' attitudes toward the

antitrust

laws.

The method of the study, frankly described in the preface,

was to survey the literature and to interview present and

past

antitrust

enforcers and anyone else who appeared to have

information or comments to offer. The basic technique is to

seek out and rely upon what Nader calls "whistle blowers,"

•Hogan &Hartson, Washington, D. C.

737

738

THE

ANTITRUST

BULLETIN

which

are

insiders

at

an agency or other organization who

are

willing to

report

facts, opinions or suspicions pointing to what

they

regard

as improper or

unfair

activity by

their

agency or

organization or its leaders. Thus there

are

numerous refer-

ences throughout the

report

to staff memoranda, reports or

opinions, as well as frequent ex cathedra judgments as to the

character or virtue of persons, institutions and actions, usually

stated without attribution or authority other

than

the fact of

assertion by the authors. Despite

its

length, this is a work of

journalism,

not

of scholarship. The only original -researeh,

analysis or

data

offered

are

the two reports

Of

attitude sur-

veys among businessmen and judges,

and

these

are

referred

to only briefly

and

casually in the discussion.

Although the

text

is divided into chapters related to agen-

cies or aspects having to do with antitrust, the writing is

diffuse, the organization is loose

and

much of the material

is repetitive. Probably the best way to indicate the significant

contents of the

report

is to

state

the recommendations as they

appear

in the discussion. These

are

scattered throughout

the book, sometimes being set

forth

as conclusions

at

the

end of a chapter, but about as often appearing in the middle

of a chapter or

paragraph.

No

attempt

is made to present a

program

or even to summarize or systematize

the.

recom-

mendations. Indeed, there is some ground for suspecting

that

the numerous recommendations

are

not so much serious sug-

gestions for improvement as a means of castigating present

arrangements by contrasting the actual with something hypo-

thetically better. Since the numerous recommendations

are

not

organized, summarized or formally identified in the text,

one cannot be sure

that

any

list

of them presents all of the

suggestions which the authors wish to make. Nevertheless,

enough of the recommendations can be identified and sum-

marized to suggest the

thrust

of the report.

Stated

in the

order

in which they occur, and

paraphrased

only slightly from

the terms of the text, these

are

the

major

recommendations of

the study group

report

(with page references in parenthesis

to the "preliminary

draft")

: