Past, Present, and Future of Antitrust Enforcement at the Federal Trade Commission.

The article informs that the period from 1970 to the present--roughly a third of a century--has witnessed profound changes in the quality of regulation at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and a remarkable convergence of antitrust enforcement policy between left and right, and between primarily legal as opposed to primarily economic approaches. With respect to substantive law, areas of intellectual debate and uncertainty remain, but viewpoint differences that existed between the 1960s and the 1980s are today vastly reduced. According to the author, it remains to be seen whether pursuit of a sound middle ground, avoiding the extremes of over- or under-enforcement, will continue to characterize antitrust policy at the Federal Trade Commission. Given current agreement on many core principles, that pattern is likely to continue.