Karen: Not only does the ABA want us to believe that low prices are harmful to customers, but to the book sellers that engage in such practices. The myth of “predatory price-cutting” is dredged up in response to aggressive competitive practices. The assumption that a seller would intentionally sell its product below its costs — both fixed and variable — implies that the seller is so dense as to think it can cover its losses by increasing the volume of below cost sales! It is not predatory or unfair competition that other firms object to, but the effective competition that the complainers are unable to match. Perhaps the ABA members should check their own stocks to see if they carry any basic economics texts by Austrian writers!

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