Karen and Rod: In his book, The Language of Dissent, former Federal Trade Commissioner, Lowell Mason, went to great lengths to point out how, under the various antitrust laws, if a firm charges a higher price than its competitors it is a “monopoly per se” (i.e., in a competitive market, one could not get away with this practice); if a firm charges a lower price than its competitors, it is engaged in “predatory pricing” (i.e., the only reason for pricing beneath the level of your competition was to drive them out of business); and if a firm charges the same price as its competitors, it is engaged in “price-fixing.” Mason gave a talk to a business group at which he brought this out. A member of his audience commented that the government had charged his firm with all three violations!

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