ON MAY 29, 1969, Lu held his last seminar at New York University, but that did not mean he was ready to retire. Until 1972 he kept up his seminars at the Foundation for Economic Education, where the intellectual atmosphere was so much to his liking.

I AM sorry that a combination of causes—geography, my busy schedule and no less my age—make it impossible for me to attend this gathering. If I were able to be present, I would have said a few words on Professor Hayek and his achievements. As conditions are, I have to put these remarks in writing and am grateful to our friends who will present them for me.

MR. CHAIRMAN, Professor von Mises, Ladies and Gentlemen. There has not been, and I don’t expect that there ever will be, in my life another occasion when I have felt so honored and pleased to be allowed to stand up and to express on behalf of all those here assembled, and of hundreds of others, the profound admiration and gratitude we feel for a great scholar and a great man.

   ANTITRUST   

THE CASE FOR REPEAL

DOMINICK T. ARMENTANO

REVISED 2ND EDITION

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People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. It is impossible, indeed, to prevent such meetings, by any law which either could be executed, or would be consistent with liberty and justice. But though the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from sometimes assembling together, it ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies; much less render them necessary.

—Adam Smith

The flurry of federal and state antitrust activity against firms such as Toys “R” Us, Staples, Intel, and Microsoft may signal the beginning of an unfortunate new era in enforcement. Antitrust regulation, like a relentless Terminator, is back in business and the economic havoc it threatens is considerable.

My position on antitrust has never been ambiguous: All of the antitrust laws and all of the enforcement agency authority should be summarily repealed. The antitrust apparatus cannot be reformed; it must be abolished.

Although it is difficult to summarize more than a century of antitrust enforcement in one observation, it is undeniably true that the antitrust laws have often been employed against innovative business organizations that have expanded output and lowered prices. That is most obvious in private antitrust cases (90 percent of all antitrust litigation), but it is also evident in the classic government cases as well.